LIVE ART: Share Your Soul

More Info: www.sparconline... | | | | To watch with closed captions, click the "CC" button at the bottom of the video screen.
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The School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC) and award-winning documentary filmmakers Martin Montgomery and Bill Gaff of humanstory have released a new, 12-minute short film about SPARC's LIVE ART program, "LIVE ART: Share Your Soul."
This new short film walks the viewer through the total experience -- from the students' perspective, as well as the faculty, volunteers, and guest artists.
LIVE ART: SOUL was performed one-night-only to a sold-out crowd of over 3,500 at Richmond's Altria Theater. Artists Sara Bareilles, Jason Mraz, Rene Marie, Chris Stills, Robbie Schaefer, Robbin Thompson, Susan Greenbaum, Raining Jane, Zak Resnick, Jesse Harper, Josh Small and Samson Trinh share their passion and enthusiasm for the experience of performing with this inclusive group of young people.
Their first short film about LIVE ART, "The LIVE ART Story," won the national PBS 2013 Online Film Festival after being nominated to the contest by Richmond's public broadcasting station, WCVE. See this previous, award-winning short film at • LIVE ART Short Film .
Their second film about LIVE ART, "LIVE ART: Through the Artists' Eyes," focused on the guest artists' perspective as they worked through a weekend of rehearsal with some of the most inspiring students on Earth. See this short at • LIVE ART - Through the... .
In addition to these short films, Montgomery and Gaff have created a feature-length documentary film which is in consideration for national distribution. For more information on the feature documentary, visit www.fromthewing..., and for more on humanstory, visit www.humanstoryf....
ABOUT LIVE ART
LIVE ART is more than just a concert event. For nine months, 125+ students with a range of developmental disabilities (autism, Williams syndrome, Down syndrome), hearing and vision impairment participate in inclusive performing arts classes alongside typically developing students. Through weekly classes led by a collaboration of over 40 professional teaching artists, arts educators and special educators, students explore innovative ways of combining art forms: dance with computer technology, visual art, music theory, dance with paint, creative writing, spoken word, photography, acting, set design, singing, and performance.
The students' engagement in the arts expands their self-awareness, awareness of others, and range of emotional contact, physical self-control, and empathy. Each class collectively performs their visual and performance art with the featured musicians in the LIVE ART concert.
SPARC was recently awarded its first-ever grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of the LIVE ART program.
All students participate in LIVE ART tuition-free, thanks to major project funding by the Stanley and Kim Markel Memorial Fund of the Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia, the Jason Mraz Founation, the E.J. Wade Foundation, Altria Group, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and more.
ABOUT SPARC
Since its founding in 1981, SPARC has served more than 15,000 children with a variety of programs for young people aged 3 -- 18. These include high quality performing arts training programs, in-school arts education, after-school enrichment programs, an inclusive arts education program for children with special needs, an acclaimed statewide high school playwriting program, and summer camps. Course offerings encompass music, dance, acting and theatre production for beginners to advanced students. SPARC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and one of the nation's most comprehensive, community-based performing arts education organizations, providing valuable life skills to children through high-quality programs.
See our website at www.sparconline... for more information and to support our work!

[@TheFireflyGrave]

From a little SPARC may burst a flame. Awesome event.

[@liontamer67]

Loved being there that night. The energy in the room was buzzing.