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Rachel Judge: Hey there, friends. Today, we're going to be talking to you about the Juniper Performing Arts Foundation. My name is Rachel Judge and I'm a board member and the treasurer of a new nonprofit that we're starting here in Farmington, but we're really supporting performing arts in Northwest New Mexico.

And so, I wanted to introduce myself a little bit. I have a background in music. I've played the cello. I grew up singing. I was also a competitive swimmer. And at some point, I just had to weigh those options, and I'm really excited to be able to, with this program, support youth as they are being able to just navigate authentic talent and their passions, all of those things, what that means to them, and how they can grow up and be involved in more programs in our community.

I'm newer to Farmington. I have a background in fundraising and youth programs. But I'm really excited to be a part of this group and the energy that our board members bring to their lives and to mine. And also joining me today is Gina.

Gina Intoppa: Hello. Yes, my name is Gina Intoppa. I am also on the Juniper Performing Arts board with Rachel. I am really fortunate that my work with the City of Farmington's Marketing Department allows me to support our theater programs. It is genuinely one of the best parts of my job. But I'm also a former theater kid, and I'm a mom of two teens who are very involved in our local theater programs. So, it's incredibly rewarding to be a part of this foundation and to be a part of the group that's supporting the arts in Northwest New Mexico. And we're really excited to watch these opportunities grow to help keep that momentum going. And we're so happy you're joining us today, because we're going to tell you a little bit about what we're doing and what we have coming up.

Rachel Judge: Great. Today, we're sharing who Juniper Performing Arts Foundation is, why the performing arts matter so much in this region, what we're working on right now, and how the community can get involved.

Gina Intoppa: Yep. As Rachel mentioned, we are a new foundation. We just got started in August of this year. Our mission is to enrich the community of Northwest New Mexico by supporting and expanding local arts initiatives. We want to foster sustainable funding models, ensure access to quality theater experiences for everyone and really see these programs grow and expand in the community.

This foundation was built by educators, parents, theater professionals, and community partners who just saw the need for focused support. Ultimately, we see a future where Northwest New Mexico is recognized as a vibrant hub for the performing arts, a place where children can grow up with access to theater education, where families can gather to enjoy meaningful productions, and where talented artists have the support they need to thrive. We'd love to see all of this continue here in our community.

Rachel Judge: Yeah, and I think continued is a really important part of this. There is so much support in our community for performing arts. The Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation played a major role in supporting creative work in Northwest New Mexico for many years. And in 2024, it completed a planned spend down on its fund and officially disbanded. And so, that left a significant gap in dependable support for arts organizations, especially performing arts programs that benefit from the long-term backing. And I think that that's really critical.

So, Juniper was formed in part to fill that void, but also just really to act as connective tissue for performing arts in this region. We have a huge passion for supporting youth programs, schools, theaters, teaching artists, community productions, and we wanted to make sure that we had a central hub where resources, collaboration, fundraising efforts could be unified and strengthened.

Gina Intoppa: Exactly. And it's so important to our community to see these performing arts programs grow. Performing arts build confidence. They help build communication skills, teamwork, creativity, and emotional intelligence. Kids learn how to collaborate. They lead, they listen, they learn to handle challenges, and those are all skills that are developed on the stage and behind the scenes.

I have a few stats that I'd like to share that talk a little bit more about performing arts and why it's so important to our community. Students with high arts participation from low income backgrounds actually have a 4% dropout rate, which is about five times lower than their low income peers that do not participate in the arts.

In schools where arts education was expanded, researchers found that 20.7% fewer disciplinary infractions were needed. So kids, they just are happier. They are more community focused in the school and they behave better. Also, students with sustained arts involvement are more likely to attend college, volunteer, vote, and otherwise engage in civic and community life. So, there are far reaches beyond just the initial programs and performances that these kids are involved in.

One of the initiatives that we really are strongly involved with is the Heather McGaughey Theater Program. Heather McGaughey was an actress who came to Farmington in the summer of 2005. She had recently graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. And she was recruited to come perform with Sandstone Productions. She was doing a couple productions that summer. She was in a Midsummer Night's Dream and she was in South Pacific. She was just 22 years old and she had plans to move to New York City that September to pursue a Broadway career when her life was tragically cut short in a car accident. Another driver ran a red light just mere hours after her performance at Sandstone, and she was killed. Her parents, Doug and Carol McGaughey, have established the Heather McGaughey Theater programs in her name. And it's been almost 20 years. These programs have continued to go strong in our community.

In 2022, post COVID, the teen show, Godspell, had 10 teens sign up. And this year in 2025, Beetlejuice Jr. saw almost 60 teenagers both on stage and behind the scenes in the production. So, there is just a huge desire for these programs in the community, a huge need for teens especially and youth. And we are just so excited to be a part of just the driving force that is continuing to see these Heather McGaughey programs grow and expand. And in fact, we would love to see them expand.

Rachel Judge: In addition to the Heather McGaughey Youth Programs, Farmington Area high schools are really excelling in their theater of success and their programming. And we wanted to just showcase a couple of these programs, the schools, their teachers, and how they've grown up in this community and have come back to add value and see that success continue.

And so, at PV we have Tyler Gleason, who was a Fort Lewis graduate. He was a PV graduate. And he is really leading that program there. They won state last year for their show. They had participation in the International Thespian Festival, which they submitted, and they were able to showcase their play there.

We have Danica Miller, who is also a PV graduate, who is the theater manager for the TCPAT at PV, which is a district facility, that helps teach the technical theater class. And I think that they're just really giving back and are so passionate about a program that they grew up that they're an alumni of, and that they get to see future generations of kids really continuing on in their passions and what they are able to create together. I think it's just really neat. Aztec has Madeline. She's a New Mexico State grad and also an Aztec grad, and she is working through her mom's legacy. Her mom was a teacher there for over 30 years and she's continuing to grow and expand on the programs there in Aztec.

And it's not just these two programs that are excelling. Bloomfield, Farmington High School, all of the theater programs that are here in this region are really just digging in. And I think they're desperate for it, I think kids that are growing up in this area that want to get involved. Not everybody's an athlete, not everybody is looking to be a part of a club, but I think that theater really is a unique opportunity for such a diverse population of kids to come together, whether they're behind the scenes or on the stage, and just be able to do that.

One of our other board members, Haleigh Bassing, she teaches film at PV. And I think when she talks with us, she's so passionate about what she does. But when she looks at her peers, and she grew up doing theater in this community, I think when she thinks about the things that make her most proud, she's always saying that art is alive in our community, and that art here is the opportunity that people are seeking out and that it's really just creating and strengthening our performing arts ecosystem at every single level here.

Theater students, I know Gina was talking about some statistics earlier. But when we think about workforce and community benefits, theater students excel in communication, in leadership, problem solving, reliability, adaptability, creativity. And when we look at national workforce studies consistently, they are showing us that employers rank creativity and teamwork among the top hiring priorities.

So when companies are looking for who they want to work with, who they want to hire, all of these disciplines that are instilled in our theater students are amongst some of those highest things. So, students involved in arts programs often demonstrate higher graduation rates, improved attendance, stronger postsecondary success. So, the performing arts isn't just something that is fun to go and be a part of. It is really building young people who become strong employees and community members. And that is the momentum exactly why our current initiatives are focused on expansion and accessibility. I think that those are two really big pillars when we were forming Juniper that we wanted to see come alive in our community.

Gina Intoppa: Absolutely. And when we talk about Juniper, what we have on the horizon, we're really excited for things that are coming up in 2026. But this year, we are really working on funding a Charlie Brown Christmas, the Heather McGaughey program out of the Farmington Civic Center. So, it is based on the Peanuts animated classic. It's just like the movie that you know and love, it's the stage version. And that will be December 11th through the 13th at the Farmington Civic Center. Tickets for that are $10 and can be purchased at farmingtonshows.com. We are using a different ticketing platform this year. There's no fees, so that ensures that all proceeds go right back to the Heather McGaughey Programs.

With that, it's going to be open at Mission Seating. It's going to look a little different. We'll be opening the doors 30 minutes before showtime. It's just going to be a really fun show. It's less than an hour, so it's really great for your littles. It's a great introduction to theater programs for little ones. And we're just really excited. And again, the reason why we're funding this show is not because the city of Farmington was not going to fund it. They were very much committed to it. But because we knew that by having Juniper Performing Arts Fund the show, we could ensure that all of the ticket sales and all of the proceeds would go right back into these Heather McGaughey programs. And so, that is why we have taken on this initiative.

And we do want to see those programs grow and expand in 2026 and beyond. It's our vision to add classes and instructors, new performance opportunities. We would love to increase financial accessibilities for families that might not be able to afford to participate otherwise. We would love to see kids grow in their technical theater training, so lighting, sound, costume design, set building, all of the other things that go into these productions behind the scenes and are a huge important part of performing arts.

And then, of course, we want to create a long-term pathway from childhood to high school programs. As you mentioned, Rachel, like these high school programs are growing, they're going strong. There's a lot of increased participation and an interest in them. And we would love to create more of a pipeline for those programs so kids can come into high school with some training and some foundational knowledge about performing arts and theater.

Rachel Judge: Yeah, the future vision with long-term planning, I think there's a couple of really great opportunities. Strengthening our partnerships with these schools, the local theaters, regional arts organizations, and developing summer intensives, master classes, outreach programs. We want to establish Juniper as this stable long-term home for performing arts in Northwestern New Mexico, and I think that we have all of the right components to be able to just really step in and be successful here. We have such passionate people. We have such strong roots that are growing deeper every day. And I think just a willingness of the community to get involved. And so, Gina, I think that you were going to tell us how everybody can get involved.

Gina Intoppa: I'm sure people are asking that question, how can I get involved? Well, first off, we want to hear from you. Please visit juniperpaf.com. That's our website. We, as I said, are a new organization, so we're still finding our footing. And if you are involved in performing arts in Northwest New Mexico, we would love to hear from you. We would love to hear what types of programs and initiatives are important to you and what you would like to see.

Our website is also a great resource for performing arts happening in the region. We've sourced all of the different productions happening with the high schools, local community groups like theater ensemble arts and other performing groups. And so, we've put all of that on our website. So if you want to know what's coming up, please visit, again, juniperpaf.com. And if you don't see your production on there, reach out to us and we would love to add it. We are also going to have some volunteer opportunities and some initiatives coming up. So again, if you can get us your contact info, we will keep you posted on all of the great things we have planned for 2026 and beyond.

Rachel Judge: And beyond donating your time through volunteer opportunities, you obviously have the opportunity to donate to us. Every contribution supports youth development through scholarships, equipment, teacher stipends, sets, costumes, program expansion, and really any fiscal need that you can think of, we are looking for ways to be able to provide that.

And while Juniper is finalizing its nonprofit status, again, we just started in August. We had Film Four Corners, our Friends at Film Four Corners, as a temporary fiscal agent. And so, what does that mean? It just allows our partnership to accept donations. To be processed safely, professionally, ensuring that these programs can grow during the transition and that we didn't have to wait while our paperwork is being filed for our 501(c)(3) status. We could really start making an impact in the community today. And you can see that through the Charlie Brown Show and some of the initiatives that we've been able to come together with. We have had a massive overwhelming great response from the community and just being able to get our footing and start accepting those donations.

Our community and business partnerships are going to be crucial here. Businesses can sponsor shows, support students collaborate on special programming. One of those opportunities is actually happening this Saturday, December 6th. We have the showcase on Dustin concert series that we were selected as the recipient of the concert proceeds. And so, they had reached out to us and said, "We love what we've heard about you. We want to help. And we have a concert that all of the ticket proceeds will get kicked back to the nonprofit that we've selected." And so, that's going to be happening here soon.

And we also have groups that are always looking to make end-of-year donations. We had an opportunity for $5,000 of matching funds through December 31st of this year. So if you're looking to make every dollar count of your donation, to count for double, this is a really great opportunity. We have a business that said, "We'd like to donate up to $5,000 for matching funds." And so through our website, we are just looking to make sure that people are connected to programs, to opportunities to volunteer, and to opportunities to donate, understanding our foundation helps set the stage for why performing arts matters so deeply in our community.

Gina Intoppa: Yes. Thank you so much for your time. We are incredibly grateful for this community and the momentum behind the arts right now.

Rachel Judge: Yeah. And your involvement truly is what's going to make a difference here. We want you to join us, volunteer, donate, or just come see a show. Get your friends together in fellowship and celebration of everything that is really, truly vibrant part of this community that we live in. Together, we're building a vibrant Performing Arts future for Northwest New Mexico. Thanks so much for letting us share with you today, and we wish you the best.

Gina Intoppa: Yes. Thank you.