We made it – the last day of November. Tomorrow begins a month of busy end-of-year projects and celebrations of all shapes and sizes. It tends to be a time filled with music and food and crowds. Some of the happiest and saddest moments of the year seem so poignant now, as the year draws to an end and we take the time to reflect. The people we are missing feel particularly and profoundly absent just now. The new friends we’ve met; there seem to be so many opportunities to see them outside the normal setting to cultivate the new friendships. Here at Lamp, it’s the start of the quietest time of the year – the winter months are remarkably silent up on the third floor of the Lunenburg Academy. Happy, sad, quiet & busy – I like it all.

We don’t often send out newsletters that include a very pointed request for funds. The December newsletter, however, is all about raising funds for the next year’s arrival of gifted young artists. Each year we reach out and ask for donations toward the Gifted Young Artist Bursary Fund (“GYAB”). These funds provide bursaries to help assist incredible young and emerging artists cover their tuition. The tuition to attend Lamp is not outrageous - $500 per week for the opportunity to study, collaborate and perform with some of the most talented, award-winning international performers of our time. The problem is that many of these artists are burdened with student debt, rent and insurance, as well as the cost of maintaining their instruments. This life – the life of an artist – also requires extensive travel, which is yet another cost they need to add into their budget. Your gift to the GYAB fund is what makes it possible for them to attend Lamp.

This year, over the final 31 days of 2022, we would like to raise funds to provide $35,000 in bursaries for Lamp’s 2023 artists. It’s a rather astonishing bar to set, we know. But such is the need of the artists coming to Lamp; I can count on one hand the 2022 artists who did NOT need financial aid.

As an added incentive – everyone who makes a bursary donation of $1,000 or more in the month of December will receive a copy of the Lamp 2023 calendar as a thank you for assisting the very artists who appear in the calendar. Hot of the presses, this gorgeous calendar has been created using the stunning photos Raoul Manuel Schnell has taken of Lamp artists over the years .

Please – as the end of the financial year comes ever closer and you consider which charitable organizations you might offer financial gifts of support to, think of Lamp. Think of the many incredibly talented artists who are doing all that they can to be here but need an extra financial boost to make their dream become a reality.

Thank you!

Many thanks to the supporters of the 2021 GYAB December campaign

All photos © Raoul Manuel Schnell http://raoulmanuelschnell.com/