It is the mission of the Greater Cincinnati Performing Arts Society to act as a catalyst to bring high quality entertainment to the Greater Cincinnati area and to support values based education.

Inspiration: Over the last 5 years, St. Catharine of Siena school has dropped from an enrollment of over 400 students to 230 today. Much of this has had to do with the issues within the city of Cincinnati leading to a mass exodus to the suburbs. In addition, family demographics have changed significantly. Currently, 65% of the families attending St. Catharine have only 1 child and competition among schools has increased. St. Catharine is not alone. Of the 18 elementary schools in the St. Lawrence Deanery, 11 have 300 students or less.

Nearly all of these schools are now running deficits and are unsure of their futures. Some use Bingo to subsidize education costs, but even though these events can bring in $200,000 to $300,000 per year, it is not enough to cover the shortfall. St. Catharine does not have a Bingo but is currently relying on cash reserves to cover losses. While the reserves can cover St. Catharine for a few years, over time they will be exhausted. The time to deal with the deficit issue is now and not when deficits are depleted. St. Catharine needs to find a revenue stream outside of the parish (just as some use Bingo) to help overcome these deficits. The breakeven point for the school is 300 students and enrollment will continue to decline over the next 3 years. In addition, Sunday collections have also taken a hit and cannot cover the losses of the school. St. Catharine's current deficit is projected to be $130,000 for the 2006 - 2007 year.

Revenue Stream: The idea is to create an additional revenue stream using a series of concerts with the proceeds going to St. Catharine and other area Parochial Schools. The series would consist of 8 - 10 shows per year initially, featuring a wide range of national acts from many different genres. The plan would be to focus primarily on smaller shows the first season, roughly 500 - 900 seats per show, and building up to include 2 shows at maybe the Taft or Aronoff Center (2500 seats) and after a few seasons look to go to 1 or 2 large scale performances (Cintas Center e.g.) 9000 - 12,000 seats.

By using the profits generated by the Greater Cincinnati Performing arts Society, we hope to provide assistance and hope to schools that are fighting for survival but are critical to the communities in which they reside. The Archdiocese has informed them that they can provide no assistance and that the schools are on their own. Some do not know where to turn. While we may not to be able to solve the problems of the community, we can get others to rally around their cause and see some wonderful artists at the same time.

Benefit to Cincinnati: We would like to promote the Greater Cincinnati Performing Arts Society as a way for the citizens to request acts and use us as a catalyst to bring them here. In most cases, one must wait for an act to go on tour and hope he comes through the Cincinnati area. If they contact us, we can look into finding a way to get the artist here based on demand. Our hope is that we can be used as a resource for the people of Cincinnati to bring a wide range of entertainment to the city and at the same time keep schools that our critical to our communities viable.