Stephen Stifano Quotations

The Arts are our cause, and helping them is our mission. Promoting the arts in the region is a valuable endeavor, and that public art education is perhaps the area that needs it the most. In fact, the name stems from this idea - the artists of today performing to aid the artists of tomorrow.

I started toying with the concept of a northeast festival in November of 2004. I didn't talk seriously to anyone about it until January of 2005 I convened the first meeting of the festival team on the first reading day of last spring semester We actually met twice, summit-style, on each of the reading days. Our production team consists primarily of students, and we've been around the block with programming, both on- and off-campus, and we decided we could pull something together that was fantastic and do it right here in our backyard.

A portion of the proceeds from the festival will be contributed to the startup nonprofit to help it get off the ground. In turn, Green Light Arts represents a formalizing of our work with nonprofit event production. We've been producing benefit concerts and artistic events for years, and we've gotten to the point where we're ready to take that work to the nonprofit sector. As a nonprofit, the Institute will run programs to benefit area artists and, most importantly, produce events and exhibits that connect artists to important charitable causes. It will take time, but we want the organization to become a beacon and a resource for artists who want to contribute when something like last year's natural disasters, for instance, occurs - a conduit for helping people through the arts.

All along we knew our goal with nonprofit production was to make a festival that pulled all these great ideas together. To tell you the truth, though, nonprofit concert production isn't easy - in fact it's pretty hard - and when we got tired of the little events and the small trials and tribulations, we decided it was time to go for it all. And in true college student fashion, we did. And here we are.