Photo credit: Joe Mazza, Brave Lux, Inc.

BRAD JAYHAN-LITTLE – Executive Director – Founding Member

Why Free Art For all?

It’s simple.  I grew up in a single Mother family.  Money was always tight, but somehow my Mother always made it work.  I never felt like I was missing out.  Looking back on my childhood as an adult, I have great respect for my Mother that I was able to grow up not-wanting, now understanding our situation.  One of the main reasons I never felt like I was missing out, is my Mother gave me the love for the arts.  It was like I had this little secret, that no other kids ever talked about.

I knew the upcoming weekend; we would travel to the city; go to the art museum, see a theatre show or just go to a park and look at public art.  It was something I had, that none of my friends did.  I now know my mom maximized free museum days, free previews and friends to give this to me.  She even went without (More times than I’ll ever know) to pay for some things that she thought were worth the enrichment to my life.

She also shaped my view of humanity and what it is capable of when compassion is put first.  Growing up, many times begrudgingly, we did community service.  Marklund children’s home is most prominent in my mind, a facility where children my age lived all the time.  As a child, it gave me perspective to the things I was lucky enough to have: health, love and cognitive enrichment.

I grew older and found myself addicted to Theatre.  I loved the community aspect to it.  People coming together and making something larger then ourselves, that lives in the ether forever.  After college and after being a Founder of Oracle, after years of doing it “the same way” as everyone else a lightning bolt hit.

Why aren’t we doing more with this?

It was that moment Public Access Theatre was born.  We need a place, where those who cannot afford enrichment, have access to it.  Those who will not have an opportunity to fall in love with theatre, have a place to do it.  Those who cannot or can no longer get out of the facility, in which they live, still need their lives and minds expanded by this as-old-as-mankind art form.

I do it for you.  I do it for me.  I do it for us.

What do you do for Oracle?

Click anywhere on this website.  I help with that.