By Stephanie Kistner, Senior Education & Programs Associate
For the first time, P.S. ARTS students from Grand View Boulevard Elementary performed at the Music Center’s 35th Annual Very Special Arts Festival on October 18th! We were excited to be able to participate in the festival and showcase our inclusive arts program that was developed in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Celebrating its 35th anniversary, The Very Special Arts Festival is an annual, free event located on the Music Center Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. Mark Slavkin, Vice President of Education at the Music Center, explains, “From its early days, the Music Center’s Very Special Arts Festival has had one main mission: to recognize the talents of all students and to create a welcoming and engaging environment in which students, including those with disabilities, have access to the transformative power of arts.”
This year’s festival theme, “We Are One,” inspired P.S. ARTS Teaching Artists Richard Scher and Amber Carroll to develop a musical performance that combined the P.S. ARTS’ motto, “We have the freedom to imagine. We have the power to create,” with the festival’s all-encompassing focus. Students from Grand View Boulevard Elementary proudly sang, played percussion instruments, and proclaimed, “We have the freedom to imagine, we have the power to create, we are one!”
Students from Grand View, including students with disabilities, made music together and showcased what an inclusive elementary music program looks like! We couldn’t have been more proud of our Teaching Artists and students when they took the stage, and we were thrilled to be able to participate in such an important event.
Students in P.S. ARTS Teaching Artist’s Tamie Smith’s inclusive visual arts classes at Grand View also had work on display at the event! Modeled after P.S. ARTS’ 2013-14 masterwork, Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” a public artwork located in Chicago, commonly known as, “The Bean,” students studied architecture and created model cities that explored concepts of space and perception, and included small-scale versions of “Cloud Gate”!
A very generous thank you to the Music Center for organizing this event that allows ALL students the opportunity to display their unique talents and create art together! We couldn’t think a better way to celebrate National Arts & Humanities Month.
For more information on the Very Special Arts Festival, you can visit: http://www.musiccenter.org
If you’d like to see more pictures from the event, you can check out our Facebook album.
