SPARC Presents Evening of Live Art with Children With Special Needs Tonight, 6/3

SPARC presents a unique concert event this evening, Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. in Richmond's premiere Carpenter Theatre at CenterStage, featuring children of all abilities (with and without special needs), performing alongside some of Virginia's best professional musicians.

This unique concert event, called LIVE ART, will be held tonight, June 3, 2012 as part of the statewide arts initiative, Minds Wide Open 2012: Virginia Celebrates Children and the Arts. In partnership with ten (10) organizations, the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC), is producing and directing LIVE ART, a culminating performance following a unique, 20-week class experience by the same name.

Participating musicians will include soulful singer-songwriters Steve Bassett, Susan Greenbaum, and Jesse Harper; conductor/arranger Samson Trinh and his Upper East Side Big Band; jazz vocalist Terri Simpson; stellar singer and banjoist Josh Small and Independent Music Award winner Robbin Thompson.

Along with these renowned performers, singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner Jason Mraz - a SPARC alumnus - nationally recognized keyboardist Daniel Clarke (Modern Groove Syndicate and k.d. lang), and producer Tim Timberlake will contribute as artistic advisors.

More than just a concert event, LIVE ART is already underway with educational classes. For 20 weeks, students with a range of developmental disabilities (Autism, Williams Syndrome, Down syndrome) and hearing impairment are working in performing arts classes alongside typically developing students. More than 30 professional staff - teaching artists, arts educators, special education instructors, choreographers, and musicians - are leading classes in multiple disciplines of arts education: singing, sign language, painting with hands and feet, spoken poetry, musical instrumentation, acting, and more. Each class will perform their showcase as part of the LIVE ART concert tonight, June 3, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. in the Carpenter Theatre.

Participating community partners include The Faison School of Autism, Richmond City Public Schools, Henrico County Public Schools, Chesterfield County Public Schools, the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Richmond Ballet's Minds in Motion, JAMinc., Collegiate School, Northstar Academy and Dreamers Theater. A partnership of this magnitude - with nonprofits across multiple sectors, public schools, and government - is rare.

LIVE ART is a unique, multi-disciplinary, inclusive educational program that is building relationships among arts organizations, educators and artists to expand arts opportunities for students with developmental disabilities and typically developing students alike.

LIVE ART is at the leading edge of arts education, integrating performing arts curriculum with special education to create a major performance event. Only a handful of such programs are believed to have been piloted worldwide, and none on such a scale. LIVE ART is positioning SPARC, its partners, and the Richmond community as leaders in performing arts education nationwide.

LIVE ART was created by Erin Thomas-Foley, SPARC's Director of Education. In her 15th year with SPARC, Thomas-Foley is responsible for SPARC's curriculum and for building the community partnerships that make a project of this scale possible. Her vision for the project has inspirEd Strong support from community partners, donors, artists, musicians, teachers, students, and families. She is joined on the project by more than 20 teaching artists and special education teachers in planning and executing the classes.

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