LIMITED TIME MATCHING GRANT

To encourage donations on Give to the Max Day, Harbor's Advisory Board is matching up to $500 in donations made between now and midnight on November 15. When donating prior to November 15, donors should look for Make a Donation, then click the link just below it that reads: "or schedule for Give to the Max Day."

AND...In addition every donation of $10 or more made to Harbor now through November 15 gives Harbor a chance at winning $1,000 - $10,000 in additional funds from GiveMN.org.

FURTHERMORE...DONATE $75 or more, and get a complimentary Harbor Theatre Group T-Shirt!

Last year, with your help, Harbor Theatre Group produced its first season. Our culminating show, What's Love Got To Do With It? wouldn't have been possible without your generous donations. Now we're gonna do it all over again!

We give teenagers in the Twin Cities metro the chance to create something of their own.

The Harbor Theatre Group is a Twin Cities-based ensemble of young performers who will work together over the course of the 2012-2013 school year to create an original theatre work that will be performed in a professional venue in the Spring of 2013.

We're helping the next generation of citizens to find their roles in our democracy.

Youth involvement in collaborative arts-making experiences prepares students for critical roles in their communities as artists, but also as educators, activists, and problem-solvers. We will not tell Company Members what to say through their art - we'll just give them to tools to investigate, polish, and perform.

We're filling a void in arts-education left by budget cuts and high-stakes testing.

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, 43% of educators surveyed in one study reported that funding for arts education had decreased, with 4% reporting that all arts programs had been entirely cut from their schools.

In order to compensate for the absence of arts programs in many students’ educations, Harbor will be offered as a free program, with an effort made to recruit students from the learning communities that are often hardest hit by cuts to operational budgets. Furthermore, transportation will be provided for students who cannot procure a ride to and from Harbor rehearsal.

We're providing early experiences with diversity in a deeply segregated urban area.

At present, Minneapolis Public Schools are more segregated than at any point in the city’s history. Harbor Theatre Group will endeavor to recruit an ensemble that represents the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of Minneapolis in order to provide young people with the benefits of integrated learning environments.

We're creating a safe space for teenagers.

The experience of high school can include the everyday drama of inclusion and exclusion, formation of self-concept, and episodes of cruel teasing and/or harassment. Harbor Theatre Group is thusly named because of our aim to create a safe place – a refuge – for Company Members to explore and express their ideas.

We need your help.

Even a small group like Harbor has significant costs in the form of:

• Rental of rehearsal space for twice-weekly meetings
• Performance space rental for the big Spring show
• Guest artists who can assist in the development of the Company Members' work
• Underwriting of school performances.
• Paper for printing constantly-evolving scripts and rehearsal schedules
• Professional set and prop design
• Healthy snacks for students who may not otherwise be receiving a healthy meal.