Future Fund
For 50 years, Pacific Northwest Ballet has inspired audiences locally, nationally, and around the world. At home in Seattle, PNB reaches over 200,000 people each year through over 250 performances, conversations, and community education events.
PNB is a leader in the artistic, economic, social, and cultural vibrancy of the Puget Sound region. The PNB you enjoy today will feel both familiar and different. We embark on our 50th Anniversary with a renewed affection for the transcendent experience of live performance, and gratitude to our fans and viewers around the world. PNB is committed to developing new work from new voices while being more representative and inclusive. PNB is the largest employer of artists in our region, proudly employing nearly 600 people each year including a Company of almost 50 dancers, our own PNB Orchestra, a faculty of dance teachers and pianists, costume makers, set builders, painters, choreographers, and more.
From helping PNB fund world premiere works for the stage, to keeping our dancers in pointe shoes through a global pandemic, our Donors keep PNB dancing. After three seasons of pandemic adaptation–PNB is even more committed to the artistry, innovation, and the joy we all share when we gather for dance.
Thank you for joining us for PNB’s bright future.
“The joy and magic of live dance performances; a reminder of the beauty and strength of the human spirit and the amazing things we can create together when we celebrate and embrace art as a community.”
“Being able to see the Nutcracker as a live performance again, made me realize just how much I had missed going to PNB performances. No matter how good the virtual events are there is nothing like the real thing in McCaw Hall.”
“As stages go dark all over the state, let’s pause for a moment to consider what we’re losing for a while – the dances that won’t be danced, the songs that won’t be sung, the plays that won’t be performed. Let’s think practically about what we can do to help those whose livelihoods are affected.”
“Your work is “essential,” in the core meaning of the word — essential to our humanity, our spirit, our imagination.”
“PNB is one of the nation’s finest ballet companies; the dancers are well trained, the orchestra superb. The immediate future for PNB – and for every regional arts nonprofit – is bleak. Arts leaders tell me if the public gathering restrictions go on for months, many arts companies won’t be able to reopen when they’re lifted.”
“As we, a nation and community, face this unprecedented situation it is our obligation as a society to support the arts. The unknown of this crisis is what feels us with stress, fear, and dread. The honesty and candor in which you shared the current financial situation of Pacific Northwest Ballet and PNB School are appreciated more than our family will ever be able to fully acknowledge. PNB is a backbone to the greater Seattle area and I have full faith that this will pass and the PNB community will come back stronger than ever.”
“The cliché about live performances is true. The power of live dance lies in its impermanence. No video can really capture the experience. We [also] underestimate the real social benefit of providing a big dark room where it’s perfectly acceptable to cry in public, which is yet another reason we need to fight to keep these arts institutions, big and small, alive.”
“I used to take my girls to see your ballet back in the 90s. I miss it very much. I am old now, the girls married and moved far away. But I always picture Swan Lake from the many times we went to see it when they grew up in Washington. We have no ballet where we live. Thank you for those memories. It’s what lives in my mind when I have to have MRIs. I close my eyes, see the dancers, hear the orchestra. It helps me through the hardest of times.”
“Our ability to weather this crisis depends on cutting as much expense as we can while maintaining a bare-bones operation, as well as applying for relief funds and appealing to donors to support the organization at this critical time. It’s just unthinkable for me to take away people’s health care right now, especially in a health care crisis.” –Ellen Walker, PNB Executive Director
