Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG) is a nonprofit art, education, and music organization established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1968.
Courses include ceramics, photography, digital arts, and design to over 500 young people each year and 3,400 additional students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Ninety percent of the students receive high school diplomas, and eight-five percent of those students enroll in college or some other secondary education. The Guild's programs also include MCG Jazz, MCG Youth, and the Denali Initiative. MCG Jazz's mission is to preserve, present and promote jazz. [1] MCG Youth offers art courses to Pittsburgh public school students. The Denali Initiative is a program that teaches nonprofit executive directors how to develop business and financing plans for social enterprises. [2]
The organization was conceived by Bill Strickland. In 1987, he expanded MCG with a $7.5 million capital campaign to construct a 62,000-square-foot (5,800 m2) vocational education and arts center. It includes a 350-seat concert hall, an art gallery, classrooms, and workshops. MCG Jazz hosts concerts and has a recording studio and record label.
The Boch Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing arts organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. It manages the historic Wang and Shubert theatres on Tremont Street in the Boston Theater District, where it offers theatre, opera, classical and popular music, comedy, dance, and Broadway musicals. The center also offers a diverse mix of educational workshops and community activities; collaborates with artists and local performing arts organizations; and, acts as a champion for the arts in the Greater Boston community by aggressively helping to make the arts an integral part of the community's collective, daily experience. It maintains partnerships with numerous arts organizations in Boston, including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Fiddlehead Theatre Company, Express Yourself, and more.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc., as it is officially named, was established in 1970 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (NPO). The Foundation is the original organizer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell Oil Company, a corporate financial sponsor. The Foundation was established primarily to redistribute the funds generated by Jazz Fest into the local community. As an NPO, their mission further states that the Foundation "promotes, preserves, perpetuates and encourages the music, culture and heritage of communities in Louisiana through festivals, programs and other cultural, educational, civic and economic activities". The founders of the organization included pianist and promoter George Wein, producer Quint Davis and the late Allison Miner.
American Jewish University (AJU) is a private Jewish university in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 2007 from the merger of the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
International High School of San Francisco, is a private co-educational high school in Hayes Valley, San Francisco, California, U.S.. Graduates earn either the International Baccalaureate ("IB") or the French Baccalaureate. The IB curriculum is primarily taught in English, while the French Bac is primarily taught in French.
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a Michigan nonprofit organization located in the Manistee National Forest that provides summer fine arts camp and international exchange programs in music, art, dance, and drama.
The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, INC. (PCC) is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational and cultural organization. It was founded in 1966 by members of Musicians' Protective Union Local #274, American Federation of Musicians. Local #274 was chartered in 1935 as a separate Black local because Black musicians were denied membership in the racially segregated Local #77. Local #274 enjoyed its autonomy for more than 36 years. It was the longest surviving independent Black Musicians' Union in the United States, of the more than fifty chartered in major cities.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 American non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. NCAC is a New York–based organization with official 501(c)(3) status in the United States. The coalition seeks to defend freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression from censorship and threats of censorship through education and outreach, and direct advocacy. NCAC assists individuals, community groups, and institutions with strategies and resources for resisting censorship and creating a climate hospitable to free expression. It also encourages the publicizing of cases of censorship and has a place to report instances of censorship on the organization's website. Their annual fundraiser is called the Free Speech Defender Awards. The main goal of the organization is to defend the first amendment, freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression. NCAC's website contains reports of censorship incidents, analysis and discussion of free expression issues, a database of legal cases in the arts, an archive of NCAC's quarterly newsletter, a blog, and Censorpedia, a crowdsourced wiki. In fiscal year 2017, the organization earned a 95.93% rating by Charity Navigator, an organization that assesses the efficacy of nonprofits.
Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12 (CAPA) is a magnet school located in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CAPA is one of four 6th to 12th grade schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. It was formed from a merger between CAPA High School and Rogers CAPA Middle School.
William E. Strickland is an American community leader, author, and the former President and CEO of the non-profit Manchester Bidwell Corporation based in Pittsburgh. The company's subsidiaries, the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and Bidwell Training Center, work with disadvantaged and at-risk youth through involvement with the arts and provides job training for adults, respectively. Strickland is a winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Award and the 2011 Goi Peace Award.
The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, commonly known as CAPA, is a magnet school in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the edge of the Christian Street Historic District. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. Students major in one of seven areas: creative writing, instrumental music, visual arts, theater, dance, vocal music, and media, design, television & video (MDTV). Students may also minor after their freshman year as long as they meet the audition requirements. The school is located on South Broad Street, in the former Ridgway Library. Notable alumni include Boyz II Men, Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots and Leslie Odom Jr.
Cape Elizabeth High School (CEHS) is a public high school in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, United States. It is one of six schools in Maine to have been named a National Blue Ribbon School multiple times by the U.S. Department of Education.
East Lake High School is a public high school serving students from grades 9–12 located in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and is part of the Pinellas County Schools. It has a 99% graduation rate which ranks it among the most graduating schools in the state of Florida.
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization founded in 1986. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime board chairman, Herbie Hancock.
Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) is a combined cultural and social services campus in Southeast Washington, D.C. The campus consists of three connected buildings, playgrounds, basketball courts and public spaces.
Boys & Girls Harbor, Inc. is a formerly independent an American youth services organization, headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York. In 2019 the organization merged with Supportive Children's Advocacy (SCAN) to form SCAN-Harbor.
The Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands is a not-for-profit organization that "strives to provide a strong voice for the arts in Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada; serve as a catalyst for community economic development through the arts; and, through the facilitation of collaborative relationships among artists, organizations, businesses and government, contribute to the vibrancy of the arts and community life."
Marty Ashby is a music producer, concert organizer, and jazz guitarist. Since 1987 he has been the executive producer of MCG Jazz, a program of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, where he has produced more than 2,000 concerts and 40 recordings on the MCG Jazz label, including five Grammy Award winners. He has also performed with a number of jazz groups and is an adjunct professor at Oberlin College.
The West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology (WMCAT) is a not-for-profit education and training facility in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. WMCAT opened in 2005 with 8,477 sq. ft. of renovated former Jacobson's department store space earning a LEED certification and winning an American Institute of Architects Award in 2006. It is modeled after Bill Strickland's Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, PA. It is also inspired by the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center (CATC) Its first graduating class in 2009 had an 85 percent high-school graduation rate among its students, 9 percent higher than the composite average of the four participating local schools.
Penn State Law, located in University Park, Pennsylvania, is one of two separately accredited law schools of the Pennsylvania State University. Penn State Law offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees. The school also offers a joint J.D./M.B.A. with the Smeal College of Business, a joint J.D./M.I.A. degree with the School of International Affairs, which is also located in the Lewis Katz Building, as well as joint degrees with other graduate programs at Penn State.
Greenwich House Music School is a community arts school located at 46 Barrow Street in New York City's Greenwich Village.