Egg Harbor, Wis. (September 21, 2023) – Birch Creek is pleased to announce that it has received a Creation and Presentation Program grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, underwritten by funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Each year, Arts Board grants support Birch Creek’s music instruction for serious high school instrumentalists in jazz, percussion, and symphony genres on its 40-acre Egg Harbor campus. Throughout the summer, audiences are witnesses to intense study and high-level performances when they attend public concerts in the Dutton Concert Barn. Birch Creek’s free concerts, school programs and shoulder season performances further enrich the Door County music landscape.
Arts Board grants are determined by a highly competitive review process from a panel of Wisconsin experts in dance, music, theater, and education. This grant acknowledges Birch Creek as an organization that offers high quality music education programming, thereby having significant impact on the cultural life in Wisconsin.
“Arts Board grants are an affirmation of Birch Creek’s excellence in performance-based music education,” Executive Director Mona Christensen commented. “The Arts Board is a State Agency that nurtures creativity and supports the arts in education. This year is their 50th anniversary, and we will, as they do today, mark Birch Creek’s 50th season in 2025. To be recognized by the State of Wisconsin for the value we have long provided to Door County is an honor.”
Birch Creek recognizes the Arts Board’s value to the all the arts organizations on our scenic peninsula in northeast Wisconsin, and Door County contributes leadership to the State Agency as well. Arts Board’s Chairperson is Brian Kelsey, Peninsula Players Theater’s Managing Director and President of Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance along with Christensen, as VicePresident. Adding an historic perspective to the Arts Board’s anniversary, Kelsey says, “On behalf of the Arts Board, I thank Governor Evers, his predecessors and the many legislators over the past 50 years who have supported creativity and the creative economy in Wisconsin’s communities.”
In 2023, Birch Creek Music Performance Center celebrates its 48th season as Door County’s Residential Summer Music Academy for advanced young musicians. From June through midAugust, students are taught by nationally known performers and educators during the day and perform alongside them in concerts at night. Four sessions focus on Percussion, Steel Pan & World Music; Symphony; and Big Band Jazz.
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