2023 IMPACT REPORT STORY

The show must go on! Sometimes — oftentimes, it seems lately — the world is full of division and conflict. So, when there’s a chance to bring people together to celebrate, learn, feel, move, create, and applaud one another, it’s worth supporting. And when it happens on and around the picturesque Guilford Green, all the better.

The Guilford Foundation (TGF) gave a $20,000 start-up grant for the first performing arts festival in 2017. The second festival (2019) featured over 70 performances and workshops over a 4-day weekend. It was such a success that organizers immediately began planning the next one.

And then, of course, things changed. Weeks before the scaled-down 2021 festival, COVID-19 was surging again, and it was unclear whether large gatherings would even be permitted. But those circumstances highlighted precisely why the festival is needed.

“We can’t stop one country from invading another. We can’t necessarily stop atrocities and disasters, but we can take care of our collective little slice of the world,” according to Executive Director Peter Hawes.

In September 2023, the festival returned with gusto and a new name: GreenStage Guilford Live Arts. Once again, it was supported by TGF through their annual grantmaking.

Despite a tropical storm that raged all weekend, GreenStage Guilford hosted 16 performances, eight workshops, two educational programs, and an inclusive dance residency. More than 1,500 people attended the free programming, much of which was moved to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio due to heavy rain and high winds.

The line-up of performers reflects GreenStage Guilford’s mission, which includes showcasing the depth and breadth of American arts and culture and providing a platform for diverse voices. The music, dance, storytelling, and artistry represented the Mohegan tribe, Puerto Rico, Central Asia, India, and the Middle East, as well as the voices of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists, women, seniors, and people with mobility and emotional challenges.

“We live on a small planet where the boundaries between one community and another, between one person and another, are melting away,” Hawes says. “Why not try to create an event with a sort of festival atmosphere and celebratory tone that brings the people together and shows folks another side of the community? It shows how someone different lives, communicates, and creates.”

Looking back on the last several tumultuous years, Hawes is grateful to TGF for that first start-up grant and to TGF executive director Liza Petra for her guidance. “We wouldn’t exist without The Guilford Foundation,” he declares.

Looking ahead to the 2024-2025 season, Hawes says, GreenStage Guilford is planning several smaller events in the coming year to keep both the arts and inclusion in the forefront and to build its own support network and audience. They hope to work more effectively with the schools to share the talent that comes to town in ways that support the arts curriculum and encourage creativity among students and awareness and appreciation among families.

In December 2023, GreenStage Guilford received a portion of the town’s funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), administered by TGF in partnership with the Town of Guilford to offset losses in many areas, including planning, marketing, fundraising, staffing, and programming.

View the 2023 Impact Report by clicking here.