Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/377629
28 SAG-AFTRA | Summer 2014 | SAGAFTRA.org A fter years of providing high-quality, no-cost educational programming to performers in the greater New York area without a dedicated space of its own, the Screen Actors Guild Foundation has finally found a permanent home at 1900 Broadway, on the same floor as the SAG-AFTRA offices, across the street from Lincoln Center. The highly anticipated SAG Foundation Actors Center, which officially opened in late May, allows the SAG Foundation to accommodate the growing demand for its popular programming for SAG-AFTRA members in New York. Since 2010, the SAG Foundation has tripled the number of New York programs and events, and now offers more than 220 free workshops with casting directors, panels with industry professionals, film and television screenings, career Q&As with renowned actors, and special events to more than 10,000 New York union members annually. In addition, the SAG Foundation provides an avenue for performers to give back to their communities through its volunteer children's literacy program BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools). More than 325 SAG Foundation BookPALS regularly read to 7,500 students in 130 New York public schools. "Whether union performers live in New York or find themselves in New York for work-related opportunities, the SAG Foundation's Actors Center is a free resource to the performance community," said Rebecca Damon, a SAG Foundation Board member and SAG-AFTRA National and New York Local Board member. The SAG Foundation Actors Center includes the state-of-the-art Entertainment Industry Foundation Voiceover Lab, a computer lab, a classroom that doubles as an on- camera audition room in the fall and office space for foundation staff. Every day, SAG-AFTRA Clockwise from above left, member Tanya Perez in the voiceover lab recording booth; SAG Foundation Computer Lab Administrator Joe Saito assists member Kyung W. Han at one of the Actors Center workstations; bottom right, Voiceover Lab Administrator Greg Stankevich manages operations at the Entertainment Industry Foundation Voiceover Lab; the lab's mixing board. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE FONTANA SAG Foundation Expands in NYC with Brand-New Actors Center — JoBETH WILLIAMS