Dr. Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory

Key Idea:

Dr. Pallavi Patel and her husband, Dr. Kiran Patel, made an initial $5 million donation, boosting millions more raised for an endowment. The new conservatory boasted springed floors for dancing, sound-dampening walls and a dedicated performance space. The conservatory was accredited in 2012, making it possible for students to get school credit for classes at Patel. The accreditation process also forced conservatory leaders to take detailed stock of what was working and what wasn’t.

Scope Of The Project:

The student body started at 600 and has grown to top 3,000 in more than 100 classes. That’s everyone from teens in the conservatory’s Rock School to adults in acting classes to kids with special needs in music therapy. Patel has doled out more than $1.6 million in scholarships. Of all its accomplishments, Patel’s dance offerings under noted dancer Peter Stark have become the most polished. The preprofessional Next Generation Ballet and the 2014 summer Junior Ballet Intensive have attracted students from around the world. Some Patel alumni have gone off to land prominent jobs. They have performed in Wicked, Spring Awakening, Matilda and Godspell on Broadway, landed parts on The Vampire Diaries on the CW, danced with the Hamburg Ballet in Germany.

Insights For Your Contribution:

Arts and creativity are the pinnacle of human expression. We are fast moving towards a society where most of our work would be done by machines, software robots and industrial robots. Every action you take towards encouraging artists and creativity contributes towards empowering human spirit and our collective self-expression.