Inland Valley Repertory Theatre (IVRT) Awarded Grants to Fund Educational Outreach

The City of Claremont has awarded two $4,000.00 grants to Inland Valley Repertory Theatre as part of its Community Based Organizations grant program, and the California Arts Council has announced a grant award of $16,203.00 to Inland Valley Repertory Theatre as part of its Creative Youth Development grant program during its 2024-25 fiscal year grant cycle.  

Inland Valley Repertory Theatre’s funded projects are Camp IVRT and Panther PAW (Performing Arts Workshop). Support awarded from the California Arts Council will continue to benefit communities throughout the state until the end of the project cycle timeline in September 2025. 

Receiving support from both the State and the City of Claremont, Camp IVRT is a musical theatre workshop for youth that engages youth ages 7 to 13 in artistic disciplines related to theatrical storytelling: singing, movement, and acting. Professional teaching artists and college interns lead the camp activities, assisted by high school students who lead group activities, model expectations, and mentor the younger campers. The camp is offered in partnership with the Claremont Community School of Music and Foothill Country Day School. 

“The primary goal of the program is to encourage and affirm youth to find their voice through the performing arts,” said Donna Marie Minano, IVRT co-founder and creator of the Camp IVRT program. “A secondary goal is to teach students how to audition for a musical at one of the many local theatres. In addition, the program has become a workforce development training ground for high school and college students to discover their teaching talents and interests.”  

The El Roble Panther PAW project received its grant last year from Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, and this year from the City of Claremont. The project enhances both the language arts and performing arts curriculum of 7th and 8th grade students at El Roble Intermediate School, solving the need expressed by the El Roble English Department for “any strategy that we can use to help our students see, hear, and feel literature in addition to reading it.” 

The goal of El Roble Panther PAW is to give 7th and 8th grade students tools techniques that will allow them to connect more deeply with the characters in the English Language arts literature they are reading as part of their curriculum. A secondary goal from the program is to help students prepare for future participation in the performing arts programs at Claremont High School. Objectives include guiding the students through a series of theatre related activities, games, and exercises; use selections from the literature to create scripts that the students will read and interpret; and direct and rehearse with the students to present a performance of scenes from the literature. 

Inland Valley Repertory Theatre was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of more than 800 grant awards totaling close to $19.5million in overall projected investments for operational and project support to nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state of California.  

About Inland Valley Repertory Theatre:? 

Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, popularly known as IVRT, culturally enriches the community by producing high-quality productions of classic and contemporary plays and musicals and by fostering the talents of artists of all ages. A critically acclaimed regional theatre company, garnering widespread honors for its theatrical works, IVRT made its home at the Candlelight Pavilion in Claremont from 2008 until 2022.? 

IVRT?was founded as a nonprofit corporation in Rancho Cucamonga in 1990 by Frank and Donna Marie Minano, is governed by an 11-member board of trustees, and?receives funding from the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles County?Department of?Arts?and Culture, the Rancho Cucamonga Community Foundation, and the city of Claremont, as well as from corporate and individual donors.?IVRT entertains, educates, and employs people in our community through great theatre art. More information may be found on IVRT's website at?www.ivrt.org?or by calling?1-909-859-4878. 

About the California Arts Council 

The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. The Arts Council is California’s leading public arts grants provider with funding accessible to every county in California.  

“Art makes us who we are in California,” said California Arts Council Executive Director Danielle Brazell. “We are defined by our creative workforce, and our everyday lives are informed, enriched, and uplifted by the artists and cultural workers across our state. On behalf of the CAC, I offer my sincere congratulations–and my gratitude–to each of our award recipients for this grant cycle.” 

“We pledged fealty to our comprehensive and field-informed Strategic Framework in our decision making for funding for this fiscal year,” said Council Chair Roxanne Messina Captor. “Council made every effort to make each dollar in our budget go its furthest toward our most important aspirations for our agency, our governor, and our Legislature alike: to create a California for all, where the arts are accessible to all.” 

Organizations were awarded grants across nine different program areas designed to benefit the whole of California’s arts and culture ecosystem, including a second year of funding for two-year programs awarded in the previous fiscal year. Award funds prioritize many of the aspirations articulated in the agency’s Strategic Framework, specifically increasing opportunities for general operating and multiyear grants, geographic equity, individual artists, small organizations, and state-local partner funding and capacity building. Read the full announcement by the California Arts Council at arts.ca.gov for more details and view a complete listing of all 2024-25 CAC grantees by county, alphabetically by organization, and by program.