Area of Greatest Need
At The Straz, we’re so much more than just a show. In addition to presenting and producing diverse world-class performances, we are:
• An institution for arts education, helping students build skills they need to imagine and achieve brighter futures through Patel Conservatory training.
• A partner to more than 40 underserved schools and agencies, delivering high quality, meaningful arts learning experiences to those who would otherwise find them out of reach.
• A resource for our unique military community, including active-duty service members, veterans, caregivers, and families.
• A catalyst for community engagement, serving and reflecting Tampa Bay with free community performances; cutting-edge, science-based conversations exploring arts and health; Town Hall convenings that amplify BIPOC voices and stories, and other programs that invite everyone to explore and celebrate our rich and evolving cultural diversity.
We can be all these things because people like you understand how the arts strengthen communities, advance economic mobility, foster empathy, improve academic outcomes, and enhance individual and community wellness. Giving to the Area of Greatest Need helps make possible all that we do.
Arts Education
To us, arts education isn’t about creating new professional artists. It’s about helping students build important innovation skills and competencies linked to arts learning that will help them grow and succeed in school, work and life.
For more than 35 years, our commitment to making performing arts training accessible to all remains strong. Gifts designated to Arts Education will support our Patel Conservatory teaching artists who offer curriculum-based training in music, dance and theater; outreach programs that help remove economic, geographic and other barriers to accessing the arts; and award-winning learning experiences that creatively leverage our offerings to fuel the creative spirit in students of all ages and abilities.
Opera Tampa
The resident grand opera company of the Straz Center, Opera Tampa produces the highest caliber of grand opera in the region, complete with the spectacle and grandeur that makes opera "the queen of the performing arts." Opera Tampa outreach introduces thousands of people to this glorious art form every year, through school residencies and visits, hands-on workshops, community performances and invitations to attend dress rehearsals. Your gift to Opera Tampa will help keep inspiring, timeless stories and beautiful music within reach of everyone.
Operation Tickets
The Straz makes tickets available at low or no cost to people who face economic and other barriers to accessing the arts. Low-income individuals and families, educators, students, military and first responders all have access to special offers through Operation Tickets. We also use this program to distribute tickets that are donated back to us – and the donor gets a receipt for the ticket value as a tax-deductible gift. Cash gifts to this Operation Tickets help offset the costs for the thousands of tickets we provide to our arts education and community partners each season.
Patel Conservatory Scholarships
Many students at our Patel Conservatory need help covering the tuition and fees to pursue their dreams of training in music, dance and theater. Donations to Patel Conservatory Scholarships help provide financial aid for need- and merit-based scholarships for hundreds of students every year.