Neighbor Anne Hiatt Is Training For Next Year’s Marathon To Raise Money For Opera

Neighbor Anne Hiatt is running the NYC marathon in 2016 for opera and she’s making a video series about it. Check out the first videos, which was all shot in Ditmas Park, directed by newly-transplanted resident Cari Ann Shim Sham. The video series stars Anne and Cameron Russell as her ‘trainer’.

We caught up with Annie to find out a bit more about why she’s running.

DPC: Why are you running the NYC Marathon in 2016?

Anne Hiatt: There are two reasons. First, I’m running to raise money for an organization that I’m beyond passionate about. I am a founder of Opera on Tap — a Ditmas Park-based national opera outreach and education-based organization. We work to enrich our communities, young and old, by bringing opera to them, whether it be on their own schoolyard or at their local watering hole. The idea here being that we believe opera can and should positively impact our communities.

We incorporated in 2006, which means we’re celebrating our 10th birthday in 2016. It seems like a pretty important milestone given that somehow, even in the face of a major economic dip and a shoestring budget, we have continued to expand across the country and develop more vibrant and diverse programming.

We are now in 18 cities across the country and are expanding internationally as well, currently active in Berlin.  In addition to our regular informal and fun outreach performances at bars/streetfairs/anywhere people will have us (we perform at Sycamore if you want to come check us out! Next show December 20th!), we commission and produce new works that are relevant to our society and present an in-school education program for elementary-aged students that culminates in a full grand production of an opera on their schoolyard for an audience of their peers and their families. Students perform alongside professional performers with orchestra. Learn more about that here.

Second, in 2016, I’m turning 40. Enough said.

So tell us how the video idea came about.

The question we asked ourselves when we started working on this project was ‘how do we compel people to contribute to the less sexy parts of an arts-based non-profit organization?’

The answer we came up with: Let’s have Annie risk her life for opera by running the NYC Marathon at the age of 40. And then let’s film her experience training for it. And make her wear silly headgear and breathable opera gowns.

What are you specifically raising money for? How will the money help your organization?

As a director of a non-profit organization that has developed almost entirely through grassroots initiatives, I have always found it challenging to raise funds specifically for our organization’s infrastructure. More often than not, donors want to see their contributions go to specific compelling artistic projects, which is entirely understandable.  Who wants to give money to support marketing budgets, office supplies and management fees?

But the fact of the matter is, these expenses must be met to keep the organization running smoothly and legally and at the same time, successfully support those compelling artistic projects.

How can people get involved and keep up with your progress?

You can check out the official fundraising campaign site here.