Saturday, July 25, 2009

Summer Theatre Camp Experience

Summers at Creative Arts are very busy! We host a different art and theatre program every week to offer unique variety and opportunity for many students to participate.

To highlight our theatre programs....
In our full-day, week-long theatre camps, students learn play production by literally producing a play or musical every week. Students audition for a role, memorize lines and songs, make costumes, props, sets, and manage set changes for a play or musical. It's amazing to watch the final production knowing students put it together in 5 days.

Angela Merrill, our Theatre Director, acts as the production's director. She challenges each student to accomplish this large task by teaching responsibility and self-accountability.

During the week, students work on group collaboration and team work (taking direction, lead, learning to support and trust others ), memorization and recall skills, reading comprehension, creative problem solving and public speaking skills (vocalization, articulation, timing).

Our summer programs invite a wide age range to participate allowing students to work together in a diverse group. We invite every student willing to work hard and have fun to participate!

If you desire to boost your child's self confidence, group collaboration and communication skills, enroll them in an acting program at Creative Arts! They are guaranteed to have fun!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Changes at Creative Arts

Hi All! Long time, no post - I know. Since my last post, Creative Arts experienced many changes.
Change can be difficult to accept - to let go of something familiar and constant. To me, change is a positive experience bringing new beginnings, opportunities and perspectives.

Creative Arts is experiencing many simultaneous changes:
Music instructors are moving on to graduate school, retirement, or family changes. While we will miss them, their departure gives way for new instructors with new teaching styles and musical interests.

Our art department head accepted another position at a summer camp in Lynn. This summer, our art camps are taught by different instructors giving our students opportunities to experience different mediums and perspectives in art.

We also added adult fine arts workshops in drawing, painting and clay.

In April, our Office Manager, Kathryn (see pic to the left), left Creative Arts for a wonderful opportunity at another company. She is doing well and thinks of us often. We miss her smiling face, bubbly personality and presence in the office. Kat moved mountains for Creative Arts and we owe her many, many thanks. She will pop in at different events throughout the year and intends to volunteer at our big fundraisers.
To help fill Kat's shoes, several parents volunteer in the office and process registrations, prepare summer camp information packets, answer phones, aid in computer database entry, marketing, etc. etc. Thank you volunteers!

In other news:

We hired a new traditional piano instructor, Brent Erstad, to keep up with demands for new music students and continue to offer instructor variety. Brent has taught lessons for over 8 years and loves classical music. His many talents also include playing the organ, which he continues to play at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in Providence, RI. He is a wealth of knowledge and will teach a Music Appreciation/Music History class for adult this fall.
Brent also offered to perform a free, solo piano concert in the fall. Keep and eye out!

We are actively seeking traditional cello and Suzuki instructors for piano, violin and viola. We are in a second interview with a Suzuki violin/viola instructor and are interviewing a few cello teachers.

Word-of-mouth continues to be our number one generator for new families and members. While we are re-evaluating our marketing strategies, we appreciate your help in passing information about Creative Arts to family, friends, groups, neighborhood and schools.

There are many opportunities to grow as a person, as a family and as a community at Creative Arts. We invite you (as adults and children) to expand your horizons and meet others by taking classes and lessons, participate in concerts and performances, and attend our community events.

We look forward to seeing you all!