8/21/2024
Education and Outreach
Members Ronald and Maryellen Wallace at The Smith Center
Las Vegans Ronald and Maryellen Wallace have been Smith Center supporters and regular attendees for more than a decade. And as much as they enjoy Broadway shows and big-name headliners, their favorite reason for coming to The Smith Center these days is to watch busloads of students flow into Reynolds Hall for free matinee performances.
“You watch as they walk in and their faces are just in wonder, like kids opening a present on Christmas morning,” Ronald Wallace says. “It’s inspiring to think that we’ve done something in the city that can inspire kids like that, and you hope that it will lead them to more appreciation of the arts.”
Because the Wallaces are Smith Center Members – that is to say, they generously donate to the nonprofit performing arts center on an annual basis – they’re invited to attend select student matinees, sit in the box tier and observe the youngsters from local public, private, charter and home schools take in performances such as Giraffes Can’t Dance and Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure.
Members contributing $100 or more annually receive these special invitations.
The student matinee program seeks to introduce school-age children to diverse forms of art and culture that might not be part of their daily experiences. That exposure has the potential to ignite a passion for the arts, possibly inspiring future careers or hobbies.
The performances are thoughtfully aligned with educational curricula, empowering teachers to use the content of the shows to reinforce lessons in subjects like history, literature, science and the arts.
For the Wallaces, coming to student matinees serves as a powerful reminder of the vast good their Smith Center support can do.
“A lot of times, you donate to something, and you don’t really get to see the impact of it,” Ronald Wallace says. “But with this, you can see it in the thousands of kids getting off those buses. They come in there, and you see it working.”
Maryellen Wallace calls the experience “magical.” “They’re coming into a whole new world,” she says. “A lot of them may not have even realized something like that was possible.”
To donate to The Smith Center and become a member, visit thesmithcenter.com/membership. Membership begins with a donation of any amount.