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Creative Music Expression

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Arts Adventures: Music Expression and Exploration has kicked off in Portsmouth in the second year of a three-year partnership with Families of Autistic Children in Tidewater (FACT). The twice-weekly residency is designed for middle and high school students with autism to explore music, practice new skills, and learn with their peers in a supportive environment.

Teaching artist Cindy Aitken is leading the residency, guiding students in different activities such as playing circle games with rhythmic sticks.

Funding for Arts Adventures comes from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. The focus of the first year was dance and creative movement, with the residency held in Virginia Beach. The featured art form in the third year will be visual art, with plans for it to be held in Norfolk. There’s no charge for students to participate.

“We’re delighted to partner with FACT because the population they serve overlaps with a group of students that we prioritize with our programming,” says Chris Everly, CEO of Arts for Learning. As part of our mission to inspire and engage, Arts for Learning works to reach underserved students, including those with intellectual or physical disabilities.

The Music Expression residency concludes in mid-December with a special “perform and inform” event for family and friends.

Support our efforts by donating here—because all students deserve access to quality arts education!

Hotter than July!

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Our artists love being back in front of families and children with in-person performances, and there are so many free public programs for you and your kids to experience. Here’s a quick look at what’s happening during the next couple of weeks, starting tonight!

Dylan Pritchett

Thursday, July 15 from 6-6:50 pm, Newport News Public Library. Enjoy a performance of “Anchor Tales” by storyteller Dylan Pritchett (moved indoors in case of stormy weather).  Please register here: https://www.library.nnva.gov/264/Events-Calendar

Jasmine Marshall

Saturday, July 17 from 10-11 a.m., Abram Frink Jr. Community Center, 8901 Pocahontas Trail, Williamsburg: Dancer Jasmine Marshall will get you up and moving in this high-energy workshop, “African Fusion,” which blends West African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. No dancing experience required! Stay for more fun as the Williamsburg Regional Library celebrates its new Bookmobile! https://www.wrl.org/event/funfest-at-abram-frink/

Harold Wood

Wednesday, July 21 from 10-10:50 a.m., Williamsburg Regional Library, downtown Williamsburg: Magician Harold Wood performs “The Magic Library.” https://www.wrl.org/event/harold-wood-the-magic-library/

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Pritchett

Saturday, July 24 from 2-2:50 p.m., Chesapeake Public Library, South Norfolk Memorial branch: Storyteller Dylan Pritchett presents “Essential African Threads.” https://events.chesapeakelibrary.org/event/5252884

 

Sheila Arnold

Tuesday, July 27 from 6-6:50 pm, Chesapeake Public Library, Indian River branch: Storyteller Sheila Arnold presents “Old School Classics.” https://events.chesapeakelibrary.org/event/5223390

 

Gary Garlic

Wednesday, July 28: It’s triple entertainment by Gary Garlic as he performs his “Caribbean Dreaming” steel drums program at three locations in a single day. He starts off at 10 a.m. at WRL’s James City County branch at 10 a.m. https://www.wrl.org/event/gary-garlic-caribbean-dreaming followed by a 1 p.m. show at the downtown Williamsburg branch. And he wraps up with a performance at the Poquoson Public Library at 4 pm. Register here: Poquoson Public Library-Gary Garlic

Video Programs

Want to stay home and watch a program from the comfort of your own living room? Norfolk Public Library is hosting videos by J&J Dance  and Arabic folk singer/dancer Karim Nagi. Click the links for details!

Covid-19: Hard Times and Hope for Arts for Learning

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Virginia’s stay-at-home order has changed all of our lives, in many different ways. For Arts for Learning, the impact has been profound.

For students who love our programs, there’s great disappointment. Sixth-grader Myla Stith can’t play the violin this spring because the Strings Impact program was canceled. “I was hoping I could get really good. After all these years, I wanted to show what I could do, so I’m pretty sad about it.”

The Rhythm and Me adaptive dance program was cut short for kids like Naomi Morgan, a fourth-grader with autism spectrum disorder. “She was getting the dance steps down, she was having a ball, she was having fun,” says her mother, Monica Morgan. “It was sad it ended so abruptly because she was really getting into it.”

It’s hard times for many artists on our roster too. “As a fulltime storyteller, with my backup job being substitute teaching, I’m completely out of work at this point,” says Via Goode, A4L teaching artist. Via is one of 38 teaching artists on our roster who are losing more than $42,000 in income because of program cancellations that have affected more than 16,000 students and 2,800 educators.

As a nonprofit organization, Arts for Learning is hurting. We don’t receive money from programs when schools are shut down. And that means we’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars that we need to keep our nonprofit afloat—money that we use to pay our artists and staff, our rent and electric bill, and everything else that keeps our business running.

Our artists and our staff have stepped up to create Take 10, new digital programming for home-schooling students that’s both fun and educational. It’s also a way for us to offer small amounts of pay to our participating artists. But here’s the problem—we don’t receive any money for producing Take 10. Since it brings in zero revenue to Arts for Learning, we can’t keep on doing it without new funding.

That’s why we need YOUR help. We want to keep providing arts education to Virginia’s kids, but we can’t do it alone. Any amount helps—will you give $10 to Take Ten? Use this link—all donations are tax deductible.