FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (November 2023) – The Broward Performing Arts Foundation added a new twist to its Annual Reception this year celebrating with a Sunday brunch to mark the official start of the 2023/2024 performance season.

More than 150 benefactors and donors gathered in the Porter Riverview Ballroom of the Huizenga Pavilion at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts where they were entertained by many stories from special guest Larry Rogowsky, GRAMMY® and three-time Tony Award-winning theater producer. South Florida artists Irene Adjan and Eric Alsford then performed two songs from the Broadway musical Funny Girl, produced by Rogowsky and on stage at the Broward Center November 14-26.

Foundation President Lisa Kitei thanked guests for their support, introduced members of the Foundation board and the Performing Arts Center Authority and announced the recent expansion of the Broward Center’s Josephine S. Leiser Room, made possible through a generous gift from Linda Haller.

Highlighting the Broward Center’s impact on South Florida, Foundation Vice Chair Dev Motwani reported that more than three and a half million students have visited the Broward Center for performances and programs. “The Broward Center opened when my brother and I were in middle school so, thanks to my mom, we got to experience the theater, and I also walked across the stage when I graduated from high school,” he said. “Being able to start there and then end up here, as vice chair of the Broward Performing Arts Foundation, and be able to give back to the community is truly an honor.”

Broward Center President and CEO Kelley Shanley echoed Motwani’s comments about the Broward Center’s impact. “Lots of students in our community have the story of ‘when I was in school, I went on a bus to the Broward Center’ or like Dev, ‘when I graduated, I shared that special moment with my fellow students and my family here’,” Shanley said. “We really appreciate our role in being that memorable place for so many people in Broward County and beyond and our role in helping students become actors in their own right.”

On an annual basis the Broward Center serves more than 100,000 students, 1,200 preschoolers and their families and 2,000 students with special needs and offers 50 onsite classes for students of all ages and abilities.

For nearly 40 years, the Broward Performing Arts Foundation has been instrumental in providing support for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Foundation was established in 1985 to deliver the required private funding to build the Center and create an endowment to sustain its operations. Over the years, the Foundation has successfully raised funds to support the Broward Center’s innovative and diverse programming, arts-in-education initiatives, community engagement activities and capital projects. In 2021, the Foundation completed a $30 million capital campaign to renovate and restore the iconic Parker Playhouse. Prior to this, it raised $60 million to complete the Encore! capital campaign to renovate, renew and revitalize the Broward Center.

For more information about the Broward Performing Arts Foundation, call 954-468-3284 or email [email protected].