Marin Ballet Outreach: Nutcracker Surprise

Nutcracker Surprise is the centerpiece of Marin Ballet's community outreach programming. Since its inception in 1996, this project has successfully provided opportunities for individuals throughout the county who lack access to arts programming to attend our annual performances of Nutcracker free of charge. Distribution of free tickets is coordinated through over 50 local family and social service agencies in Marin County. In order to serve an ever-widening segment of the community, we take care to maintain our established agency relationships as well as to involve new and different agencies each year.  

The community benefits of the Nutcracker Surprise program are compelling:

• More than 1,200 people from underserved communities (including at-risk children and their families, senior citizens on low fixed incomes, and handicapped adults) attend our performances of Nutcracker annually. The value of the free ticket program exceeds $35,000, and is made possible by the generous support of foundations and businesses in the community who care deeply about arts education and the opportunity for all segments of the Marin population to have access to the arts.
• Nutcracker Surprise participants account for 19 percent of our total audience for Nutcracker. Typically, 35 percent of the 1,200 tickets that are distributed each year go to low-income families and at-risk youth; 20 percent to seniors, and 10 percent to people with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities. The remaining 35 percent of the tickets go to agencies that work directly with African American, Hispanic, and Asian community members.

Support Nutcracker Surprise by becoming a Nutcracker Sponsor.