Our 30th year anniversary is a time to reflect on our work over the last 3 decades. From student-created letter scrapbooks in 1992, to artifact boxes, to cooking demos, to fashion shows and community tours captured on VHS, to art exchanges, to live videoconferences, to our annual international young performance tours, it has been a wonderful journey creating and facilitating so many different impactful cultural exchanges for thousands of students around the world.

However, it certainly wasn’t only me! I cannot tell you how proud and grateful I am for my staff, our partner teachers, our many collaborative organizations, and you, our friends & supporters! You made our mission come alive, joining us in delivering “global understanding through the arts!”

I see this milestone year as a pivotal one, as we start to address the global challenges facing all of us, from the enduring effects of the pandemic on our schools worldwide, to the Ukraine war (causing us to suspend our exchanges with Russia, our longest-serving international partners), to the environmental crisis, and to the cultural divide in our own country.

I invite you to read about some of our new programming initiatives below – from our virtual Performance Workshops with our friends at Tender Talents School in Uganda, to our new domestically–based TheaterConnect workshops. I want you to meet our new Board of Director members, and consider giving to our ArtLink sponsorship drive, which brings our programs to underserved schools.

So, here’s to a dynamic 30th year!

Alan Steckler
Founder & President