By Bruce Hallmark (M.S., ’04)
Last month, Jim Vidakovich (B.A., ’69; M.A., ’76) invited his longtime friend and bestselling solo pianist in history, Jim Brickman, to play a benefit concert at the University Center for the Arts. Brickman, who has recorded 21 number-one albums, 32 Top 20 radio hits, and received two Grammy nominations, played to a crowd of 400 people and raised more than $5,000.
The donations are going toward the Youth Programs in Arts and Education fund, which Vidakovich established in 2021 in the College of Liberal Arts to support arts programs, one of which was running out of operating funds when he intervened five years ago. What began as an impulse to advert a shortfall flourished into an opportunity to put his money where his heart is.
From College Avenue to Sesame Street
The donations are going toward the Youth Programs in Arts and Education fund, which Vidakovich established in 2021 in the College of Liberal Arts to support arts programs, one of which was running out of operating funds when he intervened five years ago. What began as an impulse to advert a shortfall flourished into an opportunity to put his money where his heart is.
“My life was nothing that I expected it to be,” said Vidakovich during a recent campus visit. Born in a Wyoming coal camp and raised in Glenwood Springs, Colo., a career in the entertainment industry wasn’t much more than a fleeting thought. But one thing led to another for this first-generation student.
Vidakovich began his career teaching radio and television production in high schools before earning his master’s degree and going into broadcast journalism. He held several roles before joining the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) producers of the Emmy Award-winning Sesame Street, where he worked for 11 years on Sesame Street and the science education show 3-2-1 Contact. CTW’s programs helped educate generations of children while breaking down gender and ethnic barriers.
“We were so brilliantly ahead of the curve in what we were doing,” said Vidakovich. “When I look back at what we did and the influence and impact we had, it was just phenomenal.” In the late 1980s, he was loaned out again to reinvent a Kaiser Permanente Kids Health Education program named Professor Bodywise’s Traveling Menagerie. That is where he first met and worked with Jim Brickman, who was a commercial jingle artist at the time.
Building on Your Passions
After CTW, Vidakovich went into business for himself as a media strategist working with executive producers, showrunners, writers, and actors to strategize how best to position television shows for a successful launch. He worked with NBCUniversal’s network, cable, and entertainment television productions as well as Disney, CBS, Netflix, and many others on popular shows, such as The West Wing, the Law & Order franchise, The Office, and Project Runway to name just a few.
A media career spanning more than 20 years gave him the necessary expertise to become one of the founding creators of CSU’s ACT Human Rights Film Festival. Launched in 2016, it is the state’s first week-long film festival dedicated to human rights documentaries and narrative fiction cinema. His participation was vital to the festival becoming the premier event it is today.
In 2016, he also began serving on the Liberal Arts’ Development Council and the following year learned that funding was running out for BRAINY (BRinging Arts INtegration to Youth), an arts education program for underserved elementary school students in northern Colorado. Vidakovich donated the necessary funds to ensure the program continued.
“The BRAINY program reminded me so much of our outreach efforts for Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact,” he said. Two related programs in the College of Liberal Arts also garnered his support: Middle School Outreach Ensembles, which gives students enrolled in their school bands or orchestras instrument-specific instruction and music exploration activities, and Trying on Teaching, a component of MSOE that trains music teachers. Together those three programs enrich the lives of hundreds of students from elementary and middle school in northern Colorado by providing access and creating opportunities they would not otherwise have.
Expanding the Vision
Working with the college’s development staff, Vidakovich enlisted the support of a college friend and Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity brother Al Howard (B.S., ’69) to begin supporting the programs. And in 2021, Vidakovich established the Youth Programs in Arts and Education to provide a single fund to support all three programs. The Brickman concert was a way to increase awareness of the programs, the myriad benefits to students, and to raise funds.
The next step is establishing a $1 million endowment. “Jim was instrumental in reaching his goal of $100,000 to ensure the key programs are fully funded for the next three years,” said Kevin Weaver, managing director of development for the College of Liberal Arts. “Now he’s turning his attention to raising money for the endowment. He has done an amazing job of pulling in others who give generously as well.”
Vidakovich acknowledges that fully funding the endowment will take some time, but when achieved, it will sustain the three core programs and could provide additional funding for smaller programs, such as CSU Dance Education in Motion and study abroad opportunities.
“I won’t be around forever,” said Vidakovich, “so I want this to be a legacy that can be carried on by younger people in the community with the same passion that I have.”
Make a gift to the Youth Programs in Art and Education fund.