Over the last year, we have invited you—our community, friends and family—to FIND YOUR CENTER. The Lincoln Center has celebrated so many life events and special times with you. We’ve been with you for weddings, quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, graduations, dance recitals, date nights, family holidays and nights out with friends. We want to thank all of you who came to see a performance, visited our art gallery or held an event within our halls. Because of your support and patronage, we are able to continue doing what we do best—delivering the best arts, culture, entertainment and customer service in the region to the Fort Collins community and beyond.
While we were unable to complete our 2019–2020 season due to the devastating impact of COVID-19, we still wanted to take a moment to reflect on the fantastic things that did occur this past season.
A Place to Gather
The Lincoln Center is more than just its stages and rental spaces. It’s a place where everyone can come together and share an experience. This past year, over 822 events (that’s more than two per day) took place within our walls. We welcomed over 164,000 visitors through our doors and the Box Office sold over 113,000 tickets—that’s a lot of coming together!
In 2019, The Lincoln Center presented many performances to delighted full-capacity crowds, including one of our fastest-selling shows ever: Mannheim Steamroller Christmas. In less than two days of being on sale to the public, the show sold out. While we were elated by the turnout of this performance, we were even more uplifted to be the place where so many friends and families were able to connect during this special time of year.
We also saw amazing community support for Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. All four performances of this remarkable, true-life tale sold out and the feedback we received was tremendous. It is beyond humbling to be the place where such amazing community connections and shared experiences take place.
Two Brand-New Series
Over the years, The Lincoln Center staff has received lots of requests from community members about shows they would like to see. This season, based on your feedback, we were excited to unveil two new series.
We created our new Laugh Riot Series to quench Northern Colorado’s thirst for world-class comedy. With four shows full of gut-busting fun, we were thrilled with the positive response and astounding support we received from the community on the establishment of this new series.
Understanding that nature is an incredibly important part of Northern Coloradoans’ lives, we recognized the need to present a series that reflected the passions of our community. Our new National Geographic Live Series has been a “natural” fit. We were pleased by your enthusiasm for this past season’s speakers as well as your feedback expressing excitement for more next season.
ArtWear
Every two years, The Lincoln Center Art Gallery hosts ArtWear, a fashion extravaganza that helps fund our Visual Arts program. This season, we featured garments and accessories from 53 fiber artists from around the world. The fashion show on October 18 kicked off a week of fiber art demonstrations, lectures, workshops and a gallery exhibition where people could purchase their own original wearable art. Thank you so much to the 75 volunteers who worked as models, backstage help and sales gallery support to make this event such a success! All in all, these events generated $23,000 in sales, $8,000 of which benefited the Visual Arts program.
Celebrating Community Connections
In an effort to bring diversity and education about different cultures to our community, The Lincoln Center presented Ballet Folclórico Nacional de México (BFNM) in February. Not only did this show sell out, but the performance included added opportunities for community connection. From January 18 to February 22, The Lincoln Center Art Gallery presented an exhibition titled The Colors of Community, which featured local LatinX artists. Directly before the BFNM performance, community members were given the chance to hear some of the artists speak about their work at the exhibit’s opening reception. In addition, Los Flores de Durango, a three-piece Tejano band, played in the lobby before the show, providing everyone who attended a chance to connect to local artists and music. The incredibly vibrant performance by BFNM dazzled as much as it entertained and delivered a truly unforgettable evening.
Gifts for Good
In conjunction with The Color Purple in late November, The Lincoln Center held the Gifts For Good holiday donation drive. This donation drive benefited Crossroads Safehouse and made the holidays a little brighter for those trying to escape domestic violence. Families who might not otherwise have been able to afford holiday shopping were given the opportunity to select presents—pampering items and toys donated by you—for their loved ones in a safe and secure temporary holiday shop located at Crossroads. Thanks to you, over 1,000 items were donated! The incredible generosity of this community never ceases to amaze us and we can’t thank you enough for your support.
Composting
The Lincoln Center continues to strive toward achieving Zero Waste in alignment with the City of Fort Collins’ ongoing commitment to sustainability and waste reduction thanks to our new partnership with Colorado Compost.
Over the past decade, The Lincoln Center has strategically converted all of its service-ware to compostable products and has required all of our vendors to follow the same guidelines. If you are not sure which trash receptacle to use—recycle, compost or landfill—please ask a volunteer or a member of our staff and they will be happy to help.
Commitment to Inclusivity
The Lincoln Center is a community center for everyone. We continue to embrace all people regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation by being the venue of choice for many diverse events. From LGBTQ weddings and India Nite, to bar/bat mitzvahs and the Women of Color Summit, we are truly grateful to be the home of these events and celebrations.
This year, we have expanded our efforts to ensure that all people feel welcome in our halls. We have updated language and imagery on our signage and informational materials to further breakdown any communication or exclusion barriers. In addition, we translated our rental materials into the three most widely spoken second-languages in Fort Collins to better connect with our community.
Arts Education
The Lincoln Center takes its commitment to arts education very seriously. With the help of The Lincoln Center Support League, we connected over 3,000 students and community members with world-class professional artists at 10 different events during the 2019-2020 season.
Poudre School District students enjoyed shows like Magic Tree House: Showtime with Shakespeare and Ballet Folclórico Nacional de México for free at The Lincoln Center as well as artist visits to their classrooms.
There were also free master classes offered to the community this season with multiple artists from our Classical Convergence and Dance Series—including one of the most lauded classical guitar players, Jason Vieaux, and the landmark contemporary dance group, Pilobolus.
In addition, the renowned sketch comedy and improv troupe The Second City held a special class for local teachers. Teachers were shown how to use improv in the classroom to help improve learning.
All of these events took place due to The Lincoln Center Support League which thrives with support from you!
Dementia-Friendly
The Lincoln Center prioritizes serving the community and its needs. Since becoming the first business in Northern Colorado to receive the official dementia-friendly designation, we’ve partnered with the Fort Collins Symphony’s B Sharp program. This program provides dementia patients and their caregivers season tickets as well as opportunities to interact before and after performances. Since 2015, the program has documented a measured improvement in cognitive function by those who were able to participate.
We thank you for your patronage and support this past season. What remarkable things we achieved with your support! While we cannot predict what the future holds and our 20/21 season may not look like it has in years past, we hope that you will join us when we can safely gather again.