Grantor Name: Arizona Community Foundation’s Deaf & Hard of Hearing Grant Cycle
Program Name: Assistive Hearing System for Ballet Arizona’s Performance Venue
Grant Amount: $22,338
Recipient Name: Ballet Arizona
Overview of Use of Funds: Good Works Grant Writing is thrilled to congratulate our client, Ballet Arizona, for being awarded a $22,338 Deaf & Hard of Hearing grant from the Arizona Community Foundation. Funding will support the purchase and installation of the OTOjOY hearing loop system in the Dorrance Theatre, an intimate black-box performance space with 299 flexible-use seats housed in Ballet Arizona’s headquarter facility. OTOjOY is an Assistive Hearing System that utilizes a hearing loop to provide auditory assistance to those who are hard of hearing by connecting with personal cochlear implants, traditional hearing aids, or telecoil-enables smart earbuds. The system provides the same signal strength to all connected users, regardless of seating location or hearing instrument type, allowing any number of Ballet Arizona’s audience members to hear performance audio customized to their unique needs and preferences from anywhere in the theatre.
Overview of Grant Objective/Impact: For the 1.7 million Arizonans who are hard of hearing, most community arts spaces involving auditory mediums do not offer technology for integrating hearing assistive devices to the venues’ sound systems. Thus, audience members and patrons who are hard of hearing are excluded from full participation and inclusion in these artistic experiences. As the premier sponsor for their OTOjOY installation project, the Arizona Community Foundation’s support will be critical to fulfilling Ballet Arizona’s goal of increasing the accessibility of our performances to serve our diverse audiences more equitably. By providing a high-quality assistive hearing system for their hard of hearing audience members to connect hearing devices to, Ballet Arizona ultimately elevates the impact of their artistic experiences for these individuals, making the joy of dance attainable to people of all abilities.