Dear The Arc Lehigh & Northampton Counties Administration:
What role do the arts and the performing arts centers play in our society today? Are they solely here to entertain and provide an escape from daily life, or do they contribute significantly to the economic engine of local economies, stimulate creative learning for our youth, and help improve the health of our communities?
Zoellner Arts Center has a storied history of bringing high-quality, world-class multidisciplinary art forms to the greater Lehigh Valley. We celebrate the excellence of traditional art forms and connect art visionaries to the community including renowned performers such as the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yo Yo Ma, Sphinx Virtuosi, Leslie Odoms Jr., Cirque Eloize, and more.
We take pride in being the premier performing arts organization in the Lehigh Valley, bringing together K-12 school-age children for transformative arts experiences and integrated curricular learning. We are a trusted resource for arts professional dvelopment for area school teachers, engaging with over 8,000 students from 15 different school districts in the last year. We are also the lead partner in Bethlehem for the Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child program.
We are committed to being an early adopter of a new vision of arts in our community by facilitating meaningful dialogue across our urban, suburban, and rural communities. Through initiatives like “Traveling While Black,” a cinematic virtual reality experience addressing historical and contemporary restrictions on movement for Black Americans, we collaborated with organizations across the Lehigh Valley to engage new audiences and spark discussions about race and intersectionality. The success of this initiative demonstrated Zoellner’s unwavering committment to addressing societal challenges through art, igniting a dialogue that trascended our walls and reverberated throughout our community.
By leveraging our position as a university presenter, Zoellner Arts Center is committed to challenging inequalities, inspiring new perspectives, and bringing diverse groups together through transformative experiences with the arts. Through a holistic approach that combines education, research, and the intrinsic value of the arts, we can foster meaningful dialogue and drive positive change.
We invite The Arc Lehigh & Northampton Counties to partner with us, as a financial supporter and community connector, to help us advance our work that preserves and celebrates community through cultural activities and practices. Your support will help us create belonging for more members of our community. Together, through our dedication to fostering meaningful partnerships and leveraging the transformative power of art as a driver for positive change, we can create a more inclusive and just Lehigh Valley for all.
Thank you for considering Zoellner’s proposal to support our presentation of a sensory friendly show and supporting our “relax” room.
Sincerely,
Mark F. Wilson
Executive Director
Zoellner Arts Center | Lehigh University
Executive Summary
The Lehigh Valley is a mosaic of urban, suburban, and rural communities, each with its unique demographic backgrounds and economic landscapes. Yet, access to the arts often varies based on one’s zip code. At Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center, we are dedicated to fostering a community where high-quality arts are accessible to all, regardless of geographical location, cultural or economic background.
Through various funding initiatives, we strive to dismantle barriers to arts participation. These efforts include offering free or reduced-price tickets, providing transportation assistance, and facilitating artist engagements across the Lehigh Valley.
Our vision for the future is one where systemic barriers to arts engagement are removed, and every member of the community actively participates in and contributes to the arts. To achieve this, we are pioneering community arts programs that transcend traditional models of passive spectatorship and changing our physical space to be more inclusive of the community that surrounds us. Collaborating with innovators and early adopters, we aim to create sustainable initiatives that empower communities to engage with the arts in new and meaningful ways.
Moreover, Zoellner Arts Center is committed to extending its reach beyond its physical confines. By partnering with non-profit organizations dedicated to community building, we bring our programs directly into neighborhoods, ensuring that the transformative power of the arts permeates every corner of the Lehigh Valley.
About Zoellner
Mission
Our mission is to infuse the arts into the life of Lehigh University and the greater Lehigh Valley community by presenting high-quality multi-disciplinary programs, fostering life-long patronage of the arts, and integrating our educational resources to enhance our human experience.
Background
Over 25 years ago, Lehigh University envisioned designing a vibrant arts environment where students, artists, faculty, and the community could create and learn. It wanted to educate, captivate, and inspire performers and patrons by presenting a variety of outstanding performing arts events, exhibits, and educational programs, and to develop new works. In 1997, this vision manifested in Zoellner Arts Center—home to the Lehigh University Music Department, the Department of Theatre, the Art Galleries, and the Guest Artist Series—a place for creativity and innovation; for exploring all corners of artistic disciplines; and for opening up minds to new ideas and new ways of seeing the world.
In a recent year, the center held 240 events, including over 350 artists from 10 countries, and more than 50 campus and community events, lectures, business meetings, convocations, recitals, concerts, conventions, and more. In total, the center provided arts engagement and communal space to over 55,000 people in attendance from 12 states and over 8,000 local school children. Additionally, we created partnerships with 35 community organizations in the arts, sciences, health, and literacy.
We are committed to enhancing the role of arts education in the Lehigh Valley, through children’s, family, and school programming, partnering with local organizations, as well as connecting our artists, staff, and faculty with students of all ages. As we step forward, Zoellner Arts Center will continue building organizational partnerships like those achieved as the lead organization for the Kennedy Center’s Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program in Bethlehem. We will further expand into the community by focusing on K-12 education to deliver arts enrichment programs, cultural programs, social-emotional learning programming, and artist-in-residencies specifically tied to the school curriculum.
Zoellner Arts Center strives to go beyond our four walls and challenge people to think while encouraging them to see the world through a different lens to connect and understand our community. We seek to be a leader in the arts and culture scene in the Lehigh Valley by being bold, forward-thinking, and innovative, and by bringing our diverse community together through shared experiences. And we are dedicated to presenting arts for all through being inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible.
Scope of Work
The expertise and partnership of The Arc of Lehigh & Northampton Counties will be instrumental in helping Zoellner Arts Center foster a sense of belonging for patrons with disabilities.
By collaborating with The Arc, we can plan a sensory-friendly performance as part of our 2025-2026 Reilly Children’s Hospital Family Series, expanding arts accessibility to all families. Your guidance in creating sensory and relaxation spaces will also allow us to provide essential materials that enhance the experience for patrons who benefit from these resources. The Arc’s willingness to guide our volunteers and staff in understanding and utilizing these materials will be invaluable to our ongoing success in uniting our community through the arts.
There are many definitions of “relaxed” and “sensory-friendly” performances, and we are excited to work with The Arc to explore the best options for our patrons as we continue to create inclusive artistic spaces. In Zoellner’s diversity statement, we acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, and we look forward to partnering with The Arc to move towards a more just and welcoming space for patrons with disabilities.
We offer two partnership options for your consideration. The first involves collaborating on sensory-friendly performances, which aligns with individual events at Zoellner Arts Center. The second option involves working together on the development of our relaxation and sensory room. Both options will be instrumental in making our performances more inclusive and enriching for patrons of all abilities, providing a supportive space for those with additional needs while at our center.
Objectives
• Demonstrate to the community that the arts are welcoming to our full community.
• Continue our relax/sensory room for people with disabilities and sensory needs.
• Recognize and give a platform to organizations that are doing work with people with disabilities.
• Demonstrate the value of diversity and inclusion.
Opportunities for Recognition and Impact
Corporate Benefits at the $10,000 Level: Relax Room Season Sponsorship/SensoryFriendly Show
• Marquee recognition in the playbill for 2025/2026 Season
• 2025/2026 Season Sponsor of our Relax Room
• Twenty (20) complimentary tickets to sensory friendly show and an additional event
• Logo visibility in 2025/2026 Season Brochure
• Visibility in marketing collateral for sponsored events, with hyperlink on event webpage
• Full-page acknowledgement in 2025/2026 Season playbill; premium spot
• On-stage introduction at sponsored events
• Opportunity to have tables in the lobby at sponsored events
• Complimentary use of a Zoellner space (Fowler Black Box, Lobby Spaces) for a private corporate event
Corporate Benefits at the $5,000 Level: Sensory-Friendly Show
• Producer recognition in the playbill for 2025/2026 season
• Ten (10) complimentary tickets to sensory-friendly show
• Logo visibility in 2025/2026 Season Brochure
• Visibility in marketing collateral for sponsored event, with hyperlink on event webpage
• Full-page acknowledgement in 2025/2026 Season playbill; premium spot
• On-stage introduction at sponsored event
• Opportunity to have tables in the lobby at sponsored event
• Complimentary use of a Zoellner space (Fowler Black Box, Lobby Spaces) for a private corporate event
