The Art of Giving Assuring the Future
Esme Usdan yc ’77
The Dwight/Edgewood Project, in which young people from inner-city neighborhoods in New Haven write, develop, and produce original plays under the mentorship of Yale School of Drama students, has enriched many lives over the years. The program helps these youngsters to develop critical thinking as well as reading, writing, and communication skills through their participation in the making of theatre. They emerge from the experience with a sense of pride in having their work presented before an audience, a sense of accomplishment and empowerment. Esme Usdan yc ’77 believes Dwight/Edgewood is an important link to continued achievement as these young people mature. “To be a successful adult, you need to feel that you’ve had some success as a child,” she says. “If the children who are involved in the Dwight/Edgewood Project experience that success, they can go forward with a more confident sense of themselves.” Esme’s recent gift of $250,000 has ensured that the Project continues well into the future. Esme grew up in Manhattan and studied art history at Yale. After graduation she earned a degree in interior design from Parsons School of Design. Having grown up in a family that stressed the importance of education and philanthropy, Esme
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YSD 2013–14
is no stranger to either. Her first exposure to this combination came more than 40 years ago, when her grandfather endowed the Usdan Center for Creative and Performing Arts, the nation’s preeminent not-for-profit summer arts day camp. Today Esme sits on the board of Lincoln Center Institute, the education wing of Lincoln Center, which brings the arts to public schools. She is also on the board of Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Her philanthropy at Yale began with a gift to the Yale Child Study Center to fund a therapy program. “I have a child who is on the autistic spectrum, and that was my motivation to give,” Esme says. She then turned to the education and outreach programs at the School of Drama. In her philanthropy Esme, like her grandfather, is a believer in endowment funding, so that the program is assured of continuing. “I believe all children should have the opportunity to feel special and nurtured, of being the center of attention and feeling good about themselves. Things like that make children feel they can achieve. And when that happens, it makes me happy.” Thanks to Esme Usdan’s thoughtful generosity, the Dwight/ Edgewood Project is guaranteed a long future.