Transcendence Theatre Company Mobile Unit Offers Art Curriculum Ebooks To Underserved Youth In Sonoma County

For the second year in a row, Transcendence Theatre Company will offer a Mobile Unit Arts Curriculum program to participating community partners in Sonoma County. Originally a 5-week series of in-house workshops taught by the Mobile Unit's specialized teaching artists,

Transcendence's Mobile Unit now consist of 20 ARTS-Ebooks (Chromebooks) which have been pre-loaded with programming. Categories include Theater, Dance/Fitness, Visual Arts, Music, Reading (Storytelling, Poetry), as well as a new diverse arts curriculum featuring bi-lingual fitness classes, and fall arts and crafts programs for Dia de Los Muertos, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Programming consist of over 40+ hours of video content, and 50 PDF work sheets. ARTS-Ebooks will be offered for free to participating community partners for youths in grades TK through 8th, and for families who are interested. For more information visit www.transcendencetheatre.org/edu-community/

"The Mobile Unit Team believes very deeply in the power of the arts and that it can be a great resource for exploring emotions and empathy in a productive way," said Nikko Kimzin, Director of Community Engagement & Theater Education for Transcendence Theatre Company. "It is our hope that instituting these ARTS-Ebooks as an integral component of operations will deepen the connection with community and strengthen our mission to provide equitable arts access under any circumstance."

Launched in the summer of 2019, Transcendence's Mobile Unit was created to provide free in-house arts curriculum to organizations that serve underserved youth in Sonoma County. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place regulations resulting in the cancellation of multiple art programs in the county and beyond, Transcendence made the decision to move all of their Mobile Unit programming online and create a new way to provide equitable access to their community partners.

The ARTS-Ebooks were created with a variety of Sonoma County Arts Partners, as well as original workshops created by Transcendence EDU and the Mobile Unit Teaching Artist Team. Participating Arts Partners including Transcendence Theatre Company,

California Poets in Schools, Charles M Schulz Museum, Children's Museum of Sonoma County, Heartizens, Luther Burbank Center, Museum of Sonoma County, Sebastiani Theatre, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma Conservatory of Dance, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Left Edge Theatre/ Young Actors Studio, Child Parent Institute, Classic Stage Theatre Company (NYC) and Sonoma Speedway .

Community partners will be able to offer youths and families without access to technology and internet these ARTS-Ebooks to take home and learn from the variety of programming. Each ARTS Ebook is paired with "Arts Kits" donated by Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, and "Kits and Kabootles" art kits provided by the Children's Museum of Sonoma County. These kits included drawing tools, glue, worksheets, and all the necessities for fun-filled visual arts activities.

Throughout the summer 2020, TTC ARTS-Ebooks were sanitized and rotated to over 100+ youth and families over the course of 10 weeks. Community partners included Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, Boys & Girls Club of Windsor and Petaluma, and La Luz Center. The fall rotation of ARTS-Ebooks will launch on October 5th for a 6 week rotation and will include La Luz Center (October 5th - 23rd) and Corazon Healdsburg (October 26th - November 13th). The provided arts content has been shared with multiple youth organizations to be shared with their youth and families, impacting more than 2,500 youth.

As students continue learning remotely Transcendence will extend this program throughout the fall and spring of 2021

For more information visit www.transcendencetheatre.org or call 1-877-424-1414. You can also email education@ttcsonoma.org

Transcendence Theatre Company is an award-winning, nonprofit arts organization comprised of artists with professional experience from Broadway, film and television. Transcendence Arts & Values Education Fund DBA is a subsidiary of Transcendence Theatre Company and is a 501c3 Non-Profit.

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