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  First Night Monterey's theme for the FNM 2009 Celebration is:
  “Blazing the Trail for Cultural Diversity through the Arts” we will look to our Trail Blazing First Night’ers this year to bring our Celebration alive and showcase the best of art and culture in Monterey County.
  First Night Monterey’s History and Major Accomplishments:
  Founded in 1992, First Night Monterey (FNM) was founded by Paulette Lynch and  started with a group of artists and Monterey Peninsula residents who wanted a creative alternative to the traditional New Year’s Eve revelry.  FNM is a private non-profit organization that conducts year-round community outreach and arts education workshops that culminate at the landmark New Year’s Eve celebration. First Night Monterey’s mission is to foster the public’s appreciation of visual and performing arts and celebrate families and community through workshops and the  New Year‘s Eve celebration.  

In fifteen+ years, FNM has grown from a one day arts event into a celebration of the creativity and diversity of our community.  FNM is ranked 5th in venue size and audience among 139 First Nights by First Night International.  FNM is consistently receives acclaim for the creativity of our programming.     

First Night Monterey endeavors to be a leader and a catalyst in innovative ways to reach audiences, to actively engage them in activities that stimulate their interest in the visual and performing arts.  We work to find ways to fully engage our students and audience and to show them how the arts enrich their lives and their communities.  In 2007, a number of innovative collaborations brought poetry and visual arts workshops to the migrant farm worker community, free arts workshops to the people at community gatherings in Salinas and Gonzales, and brought eleven local arts organizations to the Celebration, offering them an unprecedented opportunity to reach new audiences and to enrich the programming at the event.   These partners included: Arts Council for Monterey County; Artistas Unidos: Big Sur Arts Initiative; Big Sur Spirit Garden; City of Monterey; City of Salinas; Monterey History and Art Association; Monterey Museum of Art; Poder Popular, and Spector Dance.

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