Park City Performing Arts Foundation DBA Park City Institute

Our goal at the Park City Institute is to bring nationally and internationally known musicians, speakers, dancers, and other performers to its state-of-the-art 1300-seat theatre located in Park City, Utah. To meet our mission, "Entertain, Educate and Illuminate," we will continue to pursue our goal of creating a pathway to the performing arts for all Summit County residents, the undocumented, underserved, aging, veterans, students, teachers, working class, and the rest. We would do this by increasing the variety of performers, the frequency of performances and the timing of the events to accommodate various schedules and lifestyles of our community.

Over the course of 22 years, the Park City Institute has built solid relationships with agents and artists and are able to book performers who Entertain, Educate and/or illuminate from the stage. We will maintain these partnerships and develop others as these relationships keep us current to which artist are "hot" or "up and coming" in the world. We will continue to grow our donor and sponsor base through advertising, connecting through our relationships, and doing what we do well--presenting high level performances with exceptional customer service. As a nonprofit with a goal to make the arts accessible for everyone, we have gained the trust and respect of Donors who financially support the organization. Patrons purchase sponsorships and underwrite shows. In addition, we apply for grants, hold a yearly fundraiser, seek out performers who are willing to participate in outreach programs, and build connections in the community to help reach the right audiences.

We are small, lean and and not so mean organization. We're resourceful, creative problem-solvers (in our minds, anyway) and love what we do. We are driven to do what we do well because we will be answering to our neighbors and friends. We look for solutions. We're tap into our amazing pool of 100+ volunteers to execute our mission as there are thousands of details behind the scenes of what we produce. Living in a small community that expands and contracts with tourist seasons, has forged new relationships with those visiting who enjoyed a show, then became regulars, then major Donors. Some relationships with Donors span decades. Consistency to excellent programming and commitment to outstanding customer service keeps loyal patrons.

The Park City Institute has brought to the stage Bob Woodward, Jodi Kantor, Anne Lamott, Pink Martini, Lyle Lovett & Robert Earl Keen, Monica Lewinsky, Anthony Romero, Jessica Lange Dance, Bill T. Jones, Parsons Dance, Grace Potter, Brothers Osborne, Punch Brothers Taj Mahal, and National Geographic Live to name only a few of the performances over the course of two decades. We have held countless student outreach programs with dance, musicians, spoken word poets, and speakers. The outreach programs or residencies are small group gatherings with students and artists/speakers/performers and have included Parsons Dance, Monica Lewinski (cyberbullying), Sara Kaye, and David and Nic Sheff of Beautiful Boy. The Institute has held a one of a kind student outreach with Edward Snowden's robot before he spoke!
Filmmakers in the Classroom is a collaborative project between the Park City Institute and Sundance Film Festival and is unique to this particular place and our nonprofit. There is not another program with filmmakers from Sundance who share their short films to local students during the festival and are present to discuss filming and story telling in an intimate setting.
We have lead support for TEDx events (women, youth, global). We coach students with their TEDx Youth talks over the course of weeks to months, videotape their talks, send to TED for approval and then they are uploaded to the internet. Currently we have over 300,000 views of TEDxYouth Park City talks. We've been told that teachers across the country use these talks with their classroom.
What's next? We look to art movements across the nation and dream of creating big experiences in smaller spaces. We wish to build upon our intimate evenings, we call Curiosities, that engage people in conversations with speakers. Art connects us all and we think it matters in all its forms.