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Mission

Washington Performing Arts champions the arts as a unifying force. Through collaborations with artists, educators, community leaders, and institutional partners, we bring wide-ranging artistic programs to stages, schools, and neighborhoods throughout our nation’s capital and, with our virtual platform, share our work throughout the world.

Vision

Our community is unified and enriched through vibrant performing arts experiences.

Guiding Principles

Cultivate Artists and Arts Patrons: Be the organization that artists want to partner with and that arts patrons trust for lifelong enjoyment and learning.

Pursue Inclusion: Seek, represent, and welcome a multiplicity of voices in everything we do.

Collaborate with Communities: Build strong partnerships with local, national, and international organizations to make the performing arts accessible to communities in the nation’s capital.

Build a Lasting Legacy: Balance risk-taking with fiscal rigor, sustaining a healthy organization that will last for generations.

About Washington Performing Arts

One of the most established and honored performing arts institutions in America, Washington Performing Arts has engaged for more than half a century with artists, audiences, students, and civic life. The city is truly our stage: for decades, in venues ranging from concert halls and clubs to public parks, we have presented a tremendous range of artists and art forms, from the most distinguished symphony orchestras to both renowned and emerging artists in classical music, gospel music, jazz, international genres, and more. We also have an ever-expanding artistic and educational presence on the internet, addressing the programming challenges of this time of pandemic while envisioning ongoing opportunities for online connection and community in a post-COVID world.

Washington Performing Arts deeply values its partnerships with local organizations and other arts institutions. Through events online and in myriad performance venues and neighborhoods, we engage international visiting artists in community programs and introduce local artists to wider audiences. We place a premium on establishing artists as a continuing presence in the lives of both young people and adults through residencies and education programs.

Our achievements have been recognized with a National Medal of Arts and with three Mayor’s Arts Awards from the D.C. Government. We have now embarked upon our second half-century, ever inspired by the motto of our founder, Patrick Hayes: “Everybody in, nobody out.”

Company Publications & Financial Documents

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