Extra Curricular -- Youth Arts Engagement,

About the event

Your brand featured in a highly visible public event, an opportunity to engage directly with youth guests and their families.

Waterloo Public Square, one day, 500 visitors.

Access to the eyeGO to the Arts brand, which reaches over 90 performing arts partners across Canada and 3,000 students nationwide. 

For the last three years the eyeGO Youth Council has been programming a Kitchener Waterloo local event, Extra Curricular. Over 1,000 attendees have enjoyed youth performances of music, slam poetry, improv, theatre, and last year a Super Smash Brothers tournament, complete with a professionally commentated exhibition match!

Extra Curricular is a one stop shop to connect youth focused organizations with their target age groups, and get local students involved with community programming that benefits them.

Past organization participants include:

• Kitchener Public Library
• Trash Theatre
• KW Youth Theatre
• University of Waterloo Art Gallery
• The Button Factory
• Lost and Found Youth Ensemble
• Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute
• Eastwood Collegiate Institute
• The City of Waterloo
• The City of Kitchener
• JM Drama Alumni / The Registry Theatre

What’s the reach?

Extra Curricular is a public event held in bustling Waterloo Public Square. We expect 500 attendees throughout the day, plus a youth driven social media campaign to tie in with the event.

We are happy to discuss sponsorship opportunities that are custom designed for your company, your charitable donation and community engagement objectives, and budget. Please contact us for a full list of sponosrship opportunities, including headline sponsorship, marketing sponsorship, and in kind donations.

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Why should you sponsor?

Who am I supporting?

In addition to supporting the youth and organizations who attend the event, you will be directly supporting young artists in the community. EyeGO invites local youth groups to participate in planning the event as a professional development exercise. Participating organizations such as the KW Art Gallery and Kitchener Youth Action Council involve their volunteer groups in the artistic and planning stages. Several members of eyeGO’s youth council have leveraged their experiences with Extra Curricular to directly advance their careers.

Direct community Benefits:

Action: Young / emerging artists paid to perform.

eyeGO believe that establishing a pattern of paying young artists for the work they do is vbital for the future of a vibrant arts community that attracts business, tourism, and talent to the region.

Effect: Actively contribute to sustainable arts community, invest in the region's future.

Action: Youth groups and community not for profit organizations invited.

By inviting organizations that serve, involve, and support youth and families to attend, eyeGO connects vulnerable members of the community with resources available to them, such as community programmes, leadership opportunities, and counseling services.

Effect: Families and youth connect with existing community programmes designed to help them.

Action: Municipal partnerships and eyeGO reputation attract professional artists.

In addition to inviting youth artists to perform, eyeGO enjoys strong partnerships with the local municipalities and many professional artists. City of Waterloo programming, as well as eyeGO's own reputation bring professional performers and artists to the event.

Effect: Youth have the opportunity to engage directly, and network with professionals in the region. 

Ben Steele

Mission Statement

To engage youth by providing opportunity and economical access to experience the arts.

Vision Statement

Youth across the country acquire an appetite for the arts.

EyeGO’s local efforts come from a desire to see youth not just in audiences, but on stage. We believe that the future of the arts in any community relies upon engaging a young generation of enthusiastic artists and creators, and not only giving them opportunities to strut their stuff but establishing a pattern of paying them for the work they do. EyeGO’s ticket programme gets thousands of students across Canada out to arts and theatre events every year, but we take pride in our local event planning activities for their engagement with youth. It’s not enough to get youth out to see arts, they need to be part of the process, of the conversation. We believe that making the arts more accessible also means showing students that a career in the arts is a possibility, and helping them prepare for such a career.

In 2015 our ticket programme impacted approximately 3,000 high school students nationwide, allowing them to see professional performances for $5. Extra Curricular in particular has a local reach of around 500 people throughout the day, and showcases / pays 8-10 different youth artists and groups.

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