JAZZ CONCERTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Jazz.

Some consider it daring and innovative. Others cool and melodic. Many think it's the most important musical form of the 20th century. NYNEX made it possible for 200 young people to form their own opinions.

The company sponsored four Young People's Concerts presented and explained by one of today's most admired jazz trumpeters and composers, Wynton Marsalis. The program included 200 free tickets for children who otherwise would not have been able to afford them, and reduced-price tickets to encourage families to attend.

THOMAS COLE: DRAWN TO NATURE

As a result of a grant to The Albany Institute of History and Art, the oldest museum in the United States, young students from the Upper Hudson Valley Region had a chance to study the paintings, drawings and writings of one of America's premier landscape painters, Thomas Cole.

Cole, who founded the Hudson River School of 19th Century American landscape painting, cared deeply about nature, and sought to preserve the wondrous natural beauty of the river he admired and loved. In conjunction with NYNEX, the Albany Institute developed a program for area schools that incorporated Cole's art and writings with studies in environmental sciences.

NYNEX and the museum also helped design a three-credit seminar on Cole at nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Will the mighty Hudson ever flow as clear-blue and pristine as it did when Cole captured it on canvas? That may depend on our future scientists, at least those who see the relationship between nature and art the way Thomas Cole once did.

MECHANICAL BRIDES:
WOMEN AND MACHINES FROM HOME TO OFFICE

A woman wearing a bright, calf-length dress and black pumps is being led blindfolded through her kitchen by her husband and five-year-old son. It's Mom's birthday, and Dad and Junior can hardly contain their excitement as they open the pantry door to reveal Mom's gleaming, new present--a washing machine.

This scene may cause a few smiles today, but it wasn't considered funny at all in the late 1940s, when it ran as a magazine advertisement for a popular washing machine. But such was the humor, combined with history and a tinge of social critique, that ran through the NYNEX-sponsored exhibit "Mechanical Brides" at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design in New York City.

The exhibit brought the inanimate world of appliances and office equipment to life, and examined design history from the perspective of women who worked, shopped and took care of their families. A focal point of the exhibit was the "Telephone Room," which included more than 50 vintage telephones, accompanied by advertisements, documentary photos and recorded comments by consumers and retired and working operators. The exhibit showed how phones have been designed, marketed and used over the years.

CITYDANCE

If you grow up poor in the inner city, ballet is not usually part of your cultural experience. Except, that is, in Boston, where NYNEX is the founding sponsor of CITYDANCE, an innovative program established by the Boston Ballet.

CITYDANCE identifies, develops and nurtures talented children who might not otherwise get a chance to experience the creativity and discipline of ballet. In 1994 NYNEX sponsored CITYDANCE's six-week summer program for 200 children in the third through fifth grades. The program included daily dance classes and weekly field trips to cultural institutions in Boston.

"We're building dancers, but we're also building audiences," says Mel Tomlinson, master teacher. "Once they learn something here, nobody can ever take it away from them."

WHITNEY MUSEUM'S ART REACH TUESDAYS

The Whitney Museum of American Art closes its doors to the general public on Tuesdays. But that's the day some of New York City's most promising artists and art lovers roam the Whitney's exhibition areas. The fact that they're all school children makes the day even more special.

Art Reach Tuesdays puts more than 17,000 public school children, grades five through 12, in touch with the work of many of America's most innovative and daring artists. It also includes workshops that provide professional development for nearly 200 teachers and school coordinators.

A grant from NYNEX Foundation makes it all possible. We think it's a nice way to show we care. It's also a pretty good way to keep a lot of great paintings from hanging alone in the dark.

WESTON PLAYHOUSE

A grant from NYNEX has made it possible for Vermont's oldest professional theater, the Weston Playhouse, to take its show on the road. During the fall of 1994, the Weston's company of actors, many of whom have Broadway credentials, will perform a variety of recent New York hits in cities and towns throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

This continues NYNEX's ongoing support of the Weston Playhouse. In 1993 the company sponsored the theater's summer run. The fall tour, which marks the theater's 58th season, will bring top-notch talent to communities that often don't get a chance to host a professional theater company. During the fall of 1994, all the world (or at least parts of New England) was indeed a stage.

CHILDREN'S CONNECTION

It's a chance to stretch minds as well as limbs. NYNEX Children's Connection is a program that provides funding for cultural organizations that benefit children. In 1994 32 Children's Connection grants totaled nearly half a million dollars and aided such organizations as the Manhattan Theater Club's program at Booker T. Washington Junior High, where students had an opportunity to learn how plays are written, directed and acted.

Another grant provided free summer theater for more than 16,000 disadvantaged kids in New York City. Still another gave 1,500 elementary school children free ringside seats at the Big Apple Circus. Children's Connection evolved from the 1992 Year for the Child and combines the human services, education and cultural goals of NYNEX.