Letter from the Executive Director
Dear BAE Family:
This update is all about YOU! Well, first it will be about me, but I promise if you hang around to the end…we’ll get to you.
I am thrilled to be knee deep in Fall - my favorite time of year for many reasons, including:
School starts back up (and in-person, no less!)
Nature puts on it’s best show of the year
New York Halloween - no other city can compete
Thanksgiving, and getting to go home to visit my family (and this year a new nephew!)
HOLIDAY MUSIC 24/7
As some who started listening to holiday music the day after Halloween - and who is listening to the Pentatonix Christmas Songs Spotify playlist while writing this post - it is an even extra-great honor and pleasure to welcome you to the November newsletter. With nearly 60 holidays spread out across November and December, a celebration is never far away during the final months of the year. (See the image to the right for a visual representation of my personal holiday journey, curtesy of Reddit.)
It is probably no one’s surprise that my favorite way to celebrate is through the arts - singing my favorite holiday tunes, making cards for loved ones, decorating the home and office, lip-synching for my life along to Mariah Carey, and planning/producing 823458231 events for our youth:
the first ever Broadway Halloween Festival
our first in-person youth performance at the St. Regis Hotel
the return of the Bhavan Brunch on Dec 4
holiday caroling gigs for our Broadway Ambassadors and youth
Youth Pride Chorus’ upcoming LIVE concert on Dec 11
field trips to see Broadway shows
and much more!
There is nothing more fulfilling that creating amazing opportunities for the young people in our programs, but there wouldn’t be anyone to plan for were it not for our incredible team of teaching artists and program coordinators leading more than 100 dance, music, theater, and visual arts classes each week for hundreds of youth around the world. They are my reason for the season: this season of gratitude. They are the ones who have stepped up to plate this Fall to offer more programs than ever before - even as safety conditions are less than ideal, as students are relearning how to learn, and as partner schools navigate an unprecedented staffing shortage. Teachers are the true miracle-workers of this, and every, season.
And of course, I am eternally grateful to all of you, our family of donors and supporters. (See - I told you we’d get there!) Not only did your generosity allow us to thrive throughout the pandemic, we are on track to closing out 2021 with $150K more revenue than 2020. It is my greatest honor and privilege to use your gifts to dismantle systemic barriers to success for youth around the world through arts education, and I look forward to a future filled with more and more!
With love and gratitude,
Ben Houghton
Executive Director
