CENTRAL CITY - On May 16, the Central City Opera blared its news with the excited headline “We have exciting news to share!”

 They were announcing their receipt of the prestigious 2025-2026  Equity in Arts Learning for Colorado Youth grant.

Administered by Think 360 Arts for Learning, this significant gift will enable the Opera to expand their groundbreaking Chiaroscuro: Light in Darkness program to a full-semester residency at an Aurora-based school.

Chiaroscuro is their innovative mental health awareness and suicide prevention initiative. This project reshapes powerful operatic arias traditionally associated with themes of despair into vehicles for addressing contemporary challenges faced by students. 

The Equity in Arts program supports projects that aim to dismantle systemic barriers, support youth identity, mental health, and academic success, and amplify the essential role of the arts in education across Colorado. 

Enormously grateful to the Equity in Arts Learning for Colorado Youth grant funders for their support of the program, the Opera went on to explain that the 2025-2026 Equity in Arts Learning grant is made possible by the visionary generosity of: Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries, Denver Arts and Venues, and the Gates Family Foundation. 

Gina Ferrari, Director of Grant Programs at the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation has said “These grants support programs that help empower young people across Colorado to develop their creativity and express their unique identities through arts and culture, while building confidence and empathy.”

To learn more about the Opera’s program, please visit https://centralcityopera.org/project/chiaroscuro/ or reach out to their Education and Community Engagement team at education@centralcityopera.org.