Atlas Campaign Marches On

(Press Release)

MEAD CHALLENGE GIFT LEADS WAY TO FINISH ATLAS CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

(Washington, DC)
The Atlas Performing Arts Center, the city’s exhilarating and versatile new arts complex on H Street Northeast, today announced a $700,000 matching gift from arts philanthropists Gilbert D. and Jaylee M. Mead to launch the final stage of the Atlas Capital Campaign. Under the terms of the new gift, the Meads will match every $2 raised for the Atlas Capital Campaign between February 1, 2007 and March 1, 2008 with an additional $1. Gifts made to the Campaign to meet the challenge must be paid by the end of 2010. “Gil and Jaylee Mead have given us an extraordinary opportunity to finish our Capital Campaign,” said Jane Lang, Chair of the Campaign. “We are so very grateful and privileged to have had their support from day one, and now they’re helping us cross the finish line. Could anyone ask for better friends?”

The Atlas Capital Campaign has raised over $17.6 million to date. “That’s pretty amazing for a start-up in the arts world,” said Anne Corbett, Executive Director of the DC Cultural Corporation, credited by Lang as the “godmother of the Atlas.” “But then, it’s a pretty amazing place!” Corbett showed the Atlas to Lang in 2001 when the property was vacant and severely deteriorating. Since then, the new Atlas Performing Arts Center managed a $20.4 million historic renovation, turning the site into a 59,000 square foot arts facility. The center includes four professionally-equipped theatres and rehearsal spaces, three store-front dance studios, offices for multiple arts groups and striking lobbies. Last November, a series of donor-appreciation galas and a community open house formally marked the opening of the renovated facilities.

“We’re looking forward to a great year,” said Patrick Stewart, Atlas Executive Director. “Finishing the Capital Campaign is important for its own sake, but also to enable us to focus all of our energies on filling the spaces with a wonderful array of dance, music and theatre performances and classes. With 2,000 students at the Joy of Motion Dance Center at the Atlas, and thousands of patrons in our performance spaces, we’re turning the Atlas District into a vibrant cultural destination in DC.” In addition to on-site performances presented and produced this season by the African Continuum Theatre Company, Washington Performing Arts Society, Washington Musica Viva, Capital City Symphony, StepAfrika!, Levine School of Music and The Washington Savoyards, among many others, the Atlas Community Connection Fund sponsors arts programs at schools and seniors’ residences in Near Northeast DC.

The Meads’ matching gift will bring their total commitment to the Atlas to $1 million, Stewart noted. “The Meads have changed the cultural landscape of Washington,” he added. “The Atlas is honored to be part of their living legacy.”

Jen DeMayo

Communications Director
Atlas Performing Arts Center
1333 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
o. 202.399.7993 ext 125
m. 973.953.9831
e. jdemayo@atlasarts.org
www.atlasarts.org