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Additional Information — Brief History of 22 years Jazz in the Valley was the brainchild of Larry Sharpe after attending a reunion of graduates of CWU's Jazz program who produced a free concert at the fairgrounds during the summer of 1997. Larry had been involved with Laughing Horse Summer Theatre, which, in collaboration with CWU, had provided repertory theatre during summers in Ellensburg for the prior 15 years. He foresaw that with our connection to these artists, now professionals throughout the Pacific Northwest, producing a local Jazz Festival was possible. He brought together past board members of Laughing Horse Theatre and other community minded people for a meeting to discuss the viability of this idea in April of 1998. The group approached the Summer Theater board and requested transfer of their 501(c)3 status. Out of this discussion came the formation of the Laughing Horse Arts Foundation, which serves as an umbrella organization for a number of organizations throughout the county that are involved in the performing arts. The first Jazz Festival happened at the end of July that year. From the very beginning, our goal was to entice visitors to visit our downtown during the summer, historically a "down" time for businesses. We fostered integration by using local businesses as music venues for the event. We made money that year and the community loved it. Over the years, we grew, and expanded our offerings from Friday and Saturday to include Sunday and increased our venues from five to ten, now eight. After several years, we expanded our mission in cooperation with CWU's jazz program, adopting a dedication to jazz education. We also initiated a "Paint to Jazz" program for the Ellensburg School district, promoting artistic expression of jazz through creative paintings. We conducted educational presentations on the history of Jazz and its evolution. We sponsored a variety of music clinics for college and high school students with professional Jazz musicians involving the following: clinics at CWU, Ellensburg High School and Cle Elum High School; Masterclasses at CWU; performances at EHS; and providing free community concerts in the CWU Recital Hall. In 2012, we started offering scholarships to students wanting to major in Jazz studies at CWU. We currently provide a $1000 scholarship to an incoming students and a $500 scholarship to a returning student. Over our 22 years, Jazz in the Valley contributed $42,000 in support of local music educational programs. A number of years ago CWU offered a Jazz camp for high school students the week prior to our festival. It was so successful that even though the timing conflicts with other camps across the State, staring in 2017 they have committed to offering the camp every year. This has opened a number of collaborative possibilities: - Last year we applied for and received an Ellensburg Arts Commission grant, funding used to support partial student scholarships to attend the CWU-JIV Jazz Camp and production. Five students received a $200 scholarship ($1000 EAC funds) which covered approximately 27% of the cost of tuition, room and board ($700). - In addition, the camp was able to present a free student concert (10 ensembles of approximately 8 students each) on the JIV Main Stage on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning prior to the Festival. - jazz camp parent and student surveys suggest that having the concert at the JIV venue was a great performing experience and contributed to a very positive overall camp experience. The audience showed great enthusiasm upon hearing the students and expressed strongly positive comments following the event to camp staff and faculty as well as JIV board members. - The Band Camp Members distinctive T-shirts serves as a pass to the entire weekend event. Their families were encouraged to stay with discounted tickets. (Note: 87% of band members live outside of Kittitas County.)