Community Foundation of the Ozarks

The third annual “10 Weeks Festival” kicks off with Saturday’s Springfield Symphony performance where patrons at participating arts events will be asked to contribute a dollar or more to support the arts-education endowment fund and the Care to Learn program.

The Festival, organized through the CFO’s Arts Patronage Sustainability Initiative, has a goal to raise $10,000 in 10 weeks, which will be split evenly between the endowment fund and Care to Learn’s efforts to meet health, hunger and hygiene needs of children in Springfield Public Schools. The Arts in Education endowment fund is  designated for bringing local arts presenters directly into schools.

More information about the “10 Weeks Festival” is available at the re-launched “10 Weeks” website, now at: cfoartsinaction.org.

The CFO’s Arts in Action website was relaunched this week by Element Eleven of Nixa to include expanded information about all of the CFO’s arts-related programs, including the Stand Up for the Arts Legacy Society, the APSI panel, and the Cultural Investment Fund.

The Springfield-Branson National Airport will present the second “Flights of Fancy” event on Thursday, June 9, to cap the Festival and celebrate the arts in our community. All proceeds from that event will apply to the “10 Weeks Festival” totals. The 2010 “10 Weeks Festival” raised $11,373 for the endowment and Care to Learn. 

The Community Foundation’s 2010 annual report highlighting “The Power of Planned Giving” is now posted online. This year’s report includes a special section featuring the CFO’s 42 affiliate foundations and a report on the first year of the Rural Schools Partnership.

It also includes a summary of the CFO’s record scholarship activity, the Youth Empowerment Project, the major 2010 grant awards, the Arts in Action project over the past year and the 231 new funds established in FY10.

If you’d like a hard copy of the report, please send an e-mail to Louise Knauer or call (417) 864-6199.

Care to Learn Founder Doug Pitt is joined by student performers to shoot a promo video for the 2011 "10 Weeks Festival."

Work is already underway to plan the next  ”10 Weeks Festival” of local arts performances in spring 2011.

The Festival is designed to establish an endowment for arts education, which will secure the strong partnership that exists between performance and visual arts organizations and the children in our schools.

A second component features the partnership with the “Care to Learn” program, which was established to assist with students’ health, hunger and hygiene needs. Care to Learn Founder Doug Pitt recently filmed an announcement, which will precede performances during the Festival to describe both aspects of the programming.

Student artists representing all arts disciplines accompanied Doug in shooting the video. They’ll all recognize potential donors who will be viewing the message by saying “Thanks for being a part of the show” as the ending line. Arts patrons are encouraged to drop money in clear “10 Weeks” boxes set up at participating venues throughout the festival. Last year’s festival raised more than $11,000 for the arts education endowment.

A full schedule of information will be posted on the “10 Weeks” website in March.