For more information about The Next Stage Campaign, please contact Rosie Melia, Manager – Grants & Campaign, at 937-228-7591, ext. 3044.

These buildings are essential to Dayton's quality of life.

Each year performances in the Schuster Center, Victoria Theatre, and The Loft Theatre touch many lives with first-class entertainment, education that sparks life-long learning, and heart-stopping artistic moments that have a powerful and lasting impact on people of all ages. Opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre performances (comic, dramatic, musical, experimental) put international stars on the stages and world-class culture at the fingertips of arts-loving audiences.

The performance venues and arts facilities, held in trust for this region by Victoria Theatre Association, make the region’s vigorous arts environment possible. They are well cared-for and very well used; they help make downtown Dayton an exciting and attractive destination. They have also become the city’s first choice for social events, business gatherings, and memorable personal celebrations.

For three decades, the community – civic and arts leaders, corporations, philanthropists, artists, and arts lovers – has invested in these much-loved performance spaces. With your donations and VTA’s rigorous stewardship, planning, and strategic maintenance, Dayton’s arts facilities will continue to welcome record-setting audiences and demonstrate a generous return on investment.

These buildings are essential to the economic vitality of the city and region.

When people come downtown, the local economy gets a significant boost and the impact of healthy arts facilities ripples through our community.

• Nearly half a million people attended performances and events during the 2013-2014 Season at the Schuster Center, Victoria Theatre, and The Loft Theatre.
• Attendance at performances and events has had an immediate and powerful impact on the region’s economy. For example: Over 248,000 tickets to events presented by seven local arts organizations and others who rent the venues were sold by Ticket Center Stage for $9.9 million in sales last year.
• The total annual economic activity for all the programs in VTA’s 2013-2014 Season alone was calculated at $24 million.

VTA strives to keep rental rates at reasonable – and affordable – levels for resident companies, tenants, and users of all kinds. This helps preserve accessibility for audiences that enrich our cultural experiences with great diversity. Affordable venues also help arts organizations cultivate as broad an audience as possible through affordable ticket prices. VTA currently supports its resident companies – Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dayton Ballet, Dayton Opera, and The Human Race Theatre Company – through reduced rental rates for performance space, office space, rehearsal halls, ticketing services, and parking. This support equals more than $1 million per year.

With care, planning, and stewardship our facilities will remain among Dayton’s best long-term investments in the future.

Investment in these buildings offers a powerful return.

By investing in the Schuster Center, Victoria Theatre, and The Loft Theatre, the community has declared the importance of the arts and cultivated a culturally vigorous region. Because of this support, the arts continue to demonstrate a very generous return on investment for Dayton and the surrounding region. Like any business, this return is only possible through rigorous stewardship, planning, and strategic investment.
VTA has planned the care of its facilities over the next 10 years and beyond. Campaign contributions to support that care may be given through the following types of gifts:

• Current Use Gifts – Contributions that are totally dedicated to the support of facilities projects over the next five years.
• Current Gifts for Endowment – Contributions made to the campaign that will be invested through the endowment; an annual “draw” from the endowment will provide support for facilities projects, new programming initiatives and education, and audience engagement. The endowment will continue to grow in perpetuity with additional gifts and the appreciation of the principal.
• Deferred Gifts for Endowment – Contributions made to the campaign through various estate planning techniques, such as bequests or charitable gift annuities. These gifts, to be realized in the future, will help assure that the value of the endowment keeps pace over the long-term with requirements for upgrades and facility enhancements. All deferred gifts committed during the campaign will be counted toward the campaign goal; their value will be based on the nationally accepted Guidelines for Reporting and Counting Charitable Gifts from the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning.

Current and deferred gifts for endowment will be permanently invested in VTA’s facilities endowment fund, a field of interest fund held at the Dayton Foundation.