> SOLD OUT! Producers Circle Benefit Cabaret featuring Paula West
Update as of Friday, Jan. 12: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. If you would like to be on a waiting list at the door, please email info@sfartsed.org.
A grown-up evening of music and cocktails to support performing arts education programs. And the best news of all: the show is headlined by the one and only Paula West, only one of the best singers around. The show at the Society Cabaret in the Hotel Rex also includes dazzling SFArtsED alumni Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr., Adam Maggio, Sarah Horst, Ryan Doyle and Tory Carter, along with SFArtsED Artists G. Scott Lacy and Christopher Nelson. It's going to be a fabulous evening, and proceeds benefit SFArtsED's performing arts programs, including the SFArtsED Players and their upcoming production of Seussical (click for Seussical ticket information).
Suggested donation of $25 at the door, plus $15 food and beverage charge. RSVP to info@sfartsed.org
> One night only: Ragtime
The theatrical event of the summer! SFArtsED joins forces with the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company to present the great American musical Ragtime based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow. SFArtsED alums Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., Adam Maggio, Angela Travino and many more head the cast, which also includes past and current members of the SFArtsED Players, students in SFArtsED Summer's Broadway Bound program. The score is by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, with a musical book by Terrence McNally. Danny Duncan directs. G. Scott Lacy serves as musical director.
> Benefit Cabaret on Jan. 19
> Student fashion show Saturday Oct. 29
> SFArtsED Summer concludes with all-new revue: Building Broadway: From Show Boat to Hamilton, How Musicals Are Made
Director: Danny Duncan
Friday, July 15, 2016
Two shows only!
The Little Theatre, San Francisco State University Creative Arts Building,
This original revue created for Broadway Bound students runs about an hour and includes some of the greatest songs ever written for the Broadway stage.
Tickets are free but seating is limited. Please RSVP: 415.551.7990 or info@sfartsed.org
Broadway Bound students and their artist teachers have been doing stellar work this summer. Check out some of their performances.
> Announcing SFArtsED's new executive director
The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Arts Education Project is pleased to announce that Chad Jones has been selected as SFArtsED’s new executive director.
> SFArtsED Summer 2015: so many shows!
It has been a wonderful, creative, productive summer, and we invite you to share the work created by SFArtsED artists and their students. There's a muscial theater show from the Broadway Bound students as wel as two visual art and design exhibitions.
First up, musical theater! (see below for the visual art shows)
Directed by Danny Duncan
Musical direction by G. Scott Lacy, Stefano Flavoni & Alex Stein
Choreography by Erin Gentry, Emily Keeler, Steven Shear & Sydney Lozier
Friday, July 17, 2015
Two shows only!
Matinee at 3:00 p.m.
Pre-show Reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Evening Performance at 6:30 p.m.
The Little Theatre, San Francisco State University Creative Arts Building, 1600 Holloway Avenue at Tapla Drive – street parking available
This original revue runs about an hour and includes such great songs as “Blue Skies,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “I Love a Piano” and “God Bless America”
Tickets are free but seating is limited. Please RSVP: 415.551.7990 or info@sfartsed.org
And now Visual Arts...
The San Francisco Arts Education Project is pleased to announce that select student artwork from SFArtsED Summer will be exhibited in two shows at
2291 3rd Street
(at 20th Street)
Gallery hours are noon to 6pm Thursday-Saturday (and by appointment)
PAPER/GARMENT
Artwork by students working with SFArtsED Artist Tiersa Nureyev will be on exhibit from
Wednesday, July 15 - Saturday, July 25
Join us for the opening reception on Wednesday, July 15 from 5-8 p.m.
CHANGING FORMS
Artwork by students working with SFArtsED Master Artist Richard Olsen will be on exhibit from Wednesday, July 29 - Saturday, Aug. 1.
Join us for the opening reception on Wednesday, July 29 from 5-8 p.m.
Join the Dogpatch art crawl!
Each show includes artwork displayed in the windows of nearby neighborhood businesses. Please include them in your visit.
- Industrious Life – 1095 Tennessee Street @ 22nd between Minnesota & Third
- MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing) – in the Yellow Building, 1003 Minnesota @ 22nd
> Exhibition: Drawing on Youth
SFArtsED is proud to announce an exhibition of the work of high school students in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program led by Agelio and Delia Batle.
> Art, well read
Words
A text-centric exhibition
[artwork by Stephanie Go and Sophia Qin]
Curated by SFArtsED Master Artist, Richard Olsen, Words! features works by elementary school students in the San Francisco Arts Education Project’s in-school visual arts residencies as well as works by high school students in SFArtsED’s Interdisciplinary Arts program led by Agelio and Delia Batle.
Opening reception Wednesday, April 1, 2015
6:30pm to 9pm
Also featuring student performances from SFArtsED’s New Works workshop: excerpts of a student-created work with the Joe Goode Performance Group and songs from the new musical STARTUP:) by Alex Stein and Erin Bregman staged by Erin Gentry
Catharine Clark Gallery
248 Utah Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Exhibition continues through Saturday, April 4.
Please RSVP for opening gala: 415-551-7990 or info@sfartsed.org
Participating SFArtsED artists: Alexis Arnold, Agelio Batle, Delia Batle, Zoe Farmer, Tiersa Nureyev, Richard Olsen, Wendy Robushi and guest artist Tommy Becker
Participating schools: Claire Lilienthal Alternative, Commodore Sloat Elementary, Gateway High School, Gordon Lau Elementary, Hillcrest Elementary, International Studies Academy, Lowell High School, McKinley Elementary, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts
Read the full press release here.
> SFArtsED Players go over the Rainbow
Every few years, the SFArtsED Players take a break from doing a classic American musical and instead focus on the work of an artist whose work helped define what has come to be known as The Great American Songbook, an array of great songs from stage, screen and recordings.
This year, we're pleased to announce that the SFArtsED Players will star in the original musical revue Sittin' on a Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen. A revered composer, Arlen is best known for scoring The Wizard of Oz and for composing such great songs as "The Blues in the Night," "Get Happy," "Storm Weather," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "That Old Black Magic" and "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" among many others.
Sittin' on a Rainbow
Feb. 14 through March 1, 2015
Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco
Saturday 2/14 & Sunday 2/15 @ 2:00 PM
Friday 2/20 @ 7:00 PM
Saturday 2/21 & Sunday 2/22 @ 2:00 PM
Friday 2/27 @ 7:00 PM
Saturday 2/28 @ 2:00 PM
Sunday 3/1 @ 1:00 PM*
Tickets are $15 for students and seniors; $25 general admission and are available
through City Box office. Click here or call 415.392.4400
* Tickets for the 1:00 PM show on 3/1 are $40 general, $20 student/senior and include a special performance by Paula West, drinks, hors d’ouevres and dessert as part of the Players’ Family Benefit Reception and Closing Day Party, a fundraiser for the San Francisco Arts Education Project.
Check out this sneak peek of Sittin' on a Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen
> Art for arts education: a limited edition giclée print
SFArtsED Master Artist Richard Olsen helped us launch the Art & Design program in the 2013-14 school year, and among some of the extraordinary artwork that came out of those after-school and Saturday sessions was a painting, created by Richard and his students, of a black coat that looked almost as if it were melting. Response to the painting was so strong that we have turned the work into a limited edition (of 30) giclée print available for sale. Each print is $500 and supports SFArtsED's arts education program like Art & Design.
Framed versions of the print can be seen at both locations of MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing) in Hayes Valley (387 Grove St.) and in Dogpatch (1003 Minnesota St.). For purchase information call 415.551.7990.
> Broadway Bound students perform A Gershwin Portrait
As we wind down the 19th anual SFArtsED Summer, we proudly present a final Broadway Bound showcase: A Gershwin Portrait, celebrating the extraordinary music of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.
> SFArtsED joins Amazon Smile donation program
Now every time you shop on Amazon.com, you can benefit the San Francisco Arts Education Program!
> Join us for SFArtsED's fundraising auction April 3
Please join us to support visual art and design programs in our schools and in after-school programs for students at all grade levels. Funding continues to disappear for programs like these, so it falls to those of us who care passionately about the importance of arts education and the encouragement of vibrant young artsits to keep the arts alive in our schools.
The San Francisco Arts Education Project and Agelio and Delia Batle's Interdisciplinary Art invite you to support Arts Education in the Visual Arts at a fundraising auction
Thursday, April 3, 2014
6:30-9p.m.
Catharine Clark Gallery, 248 Utah Street, San Francisco
(between 15th and 16th streets)
Food, drink, Silent and Live Auction with Auctioneer Lenny Broberg
Entertainment by SFArtsED students in the New Works Workshop in collaboration with the Joe Goode Performance Group
Student artwork also on exhibit from SFArtsED Art & Design and Agelio and Delia Batle's Interdisciplinary Art program.
Reservations are necessary to check in. RSVP to 415.551.7990 or email info@sfartsed.org.
Click here to see the full invitation.
Silent and live auction of work created by students in SFArtsED's artist residencies in San Francisco public schools, work created by students in SFArtsED Art & Design (an after-school and Saturday visual art and fashion design workshop) and students in Interdisciplinary Art. Among the auction items will be works specifically created by public school students working with SFArtsED teaching artists for the exhibition INERNATIONAL ORANGE: The Bridge Re-imagined.
AUCTION HOST COMMITTEE:
Chris Ospital and Ben Ospital, chairs
Agelio & Delia Batle
Deborah Bishop
Frish Brandt
Rena Bransten
Trish Bransten
Catharine Clark
Joe Goode
Lynn Marie Kirby
Chris McCall
Event sponosrs: Ship Art International, Winslow & Associates
Here's a sneak peek at some live auction artwork:
> Tickets now on sale: SFArtsED Players present Li'l Abner
The annual SFArtsED Players winter musical is the 1956 charmer Li'l Abner, featuring a score by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Gene DePaul (music) and a book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. Based on Al Capp's comic strip of the same name, the music is set in Dogpatch, USA, and features dynamic group numbers originally staged by the great Michael Kidd.
Performance dates:
Saturday and Sunday, February 15 & 16 at 2 p.m.
Friday, February 21 at 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, February 22 and 23 at 2 p.m.
Friday, February 28 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 2 at 1 p.m. (includes Closing Day party)
Where: The Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco
Tickets are now on sale through City Box Office: click here to purchase tickets or call 415.392.4400.
> First look into Li'l Abner rehearsals
Filmmaker Matthew Pinna and his crew have been working on a documentary about the SFArtsED Players process – amazingly talented kids working with amazingly talented artist teacher – and we're happy to share these clips from a Li'l Abner rehearsals. First up is the number "Jubiliation T. Cornpone" followed by a scene rehearsal with Danny Duncan. You can help us reach our goal of $10,000 to finish the documentary by making a gift to our Indiegogo campaign: http://igg.me/at/sfartsed/x/5388866
> Help us fund a film documentary about the SFArtsED Players
We are raising $10,000 through an Indiegogo campaign to make a documentary film about the SFArtsED Players process and the final season of director Danny Duncan. Filmmaker Matthew Pinna and his crew are following rehearsals of Li'l Abner to capture the magic of talented young performers hard at work honing their performance skills and learning from a team of dedicated and highly skilled teaching artists. Click on the link below for more information. Thank you for your support of this great project!
> This summer, we're going On the Town
For a fourth summer, SFArtsED partners with the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony to bring a Broadway classic to new and vibrant life. Following in the footsteps of Carousel, Guys and Dolls and Oklahoma!, SFArtsED is pleased to present Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green's On the Town performed one night only in a benefit for SFArtsED. Click to order tickets. The show is at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 29 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Video clip: SFArtsED Artistic Director Emily Keeler talked about On the Town with the Comcast Hometown Network. Watch the clip here or check it out below:
We're thrilled to announce that our special guest will be jazz great Paula West playing the role of The Diva and siging the song "Ain't Got No Tears Left."
On the Town
Monday, July 29, 2013
7:30pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco
Tickets are $25-$45
Call City Box Office at 415.392.4400
www.cityboxoffice.com
The official press release:
The San Francisco Arts Education Project’s summer production of On the Town on Monday, July 29, 2013 will be rousing, beautiful and everything this classic Leonard Bernstein-Jerome Robbins-Comden and Green musical should be. Accompanied by the 46-piece UC Berkeley Summer Symphony, the young performers, ranging in age from 9 to 25 will make this one of the can’t-miss events of the summer. The show is at 7:30 p.m. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St., San Francisco.
Jazz great Paula West, fresh from her triumph in Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning oratory Blood on the Fields with Jazz at Lincoln Center, will play the part of The Diva, who performs “Ain’t Got No Tears Left.”
The end result of an intensive summer program involving an intensive three-week rehearsal period in preparation for the show, this On the Town features an array of San Francisco Arts Education Project students.
- In the lead roles are alumni of the Artists-in-Residence programs in San Francisco public schools as well as from SFArtsED Summer and the SFArtsED Players musical theater troupe. As returning older students, some in high school, some in college, they serve as mentors to the younger students.
- In supporting roles are members of the SFArtsED Players, a youth musical theater program.
- And in the ensemble are students from the SFArtsED Summer 2013 Broadway Bound program, some of whom are making their stage debuts.
The young performers, all 60 of them, are accompanied for a fourth year by the 46 musicians of the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Henry Shin. The production is directed by Danny Duncan, a celebrated local director and writer who has worked with SFArtsED for more than two decades.
The creative team includes veterans of SFArtsED programs: SFArtsED Artistic Director Emily Keeler, accompanist Lilli Wosk, consulting musical director Vince Peterson, choreographers Natalie Greene, Erin Hewitt and Stacy Swan and costume designer Tiersa Nureyev.
Greene, who has worked with SFArtsED since 2003 says she looks forward to former students returning to share their talents after working in universities and conservatories, professional gigs and national tours. “They come to share their talents with incoming generations, and there is a strange new look in their eyes that I usually interpret as appreciation,” Greene says. “Alumni return as young artists with the realization that we have always treated them as such. They are not crossing over; they have been there all along.
Angela Travino, a returning alumna who will star as Hildy Esterhazy in On the Town, first performed with SFArtsED in 2000’s The Giver before going on to appear with the Players in The Invisible Princess and Once Upon a Mattress. Toward the end of her time at Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts, Travino was hired as a swing on the national tour of South Pacific. Now the New Yorker is back in San Francisco working with young performers and preparing to stop the show with Hildy’s “I Can Cook Too.”
“I find teaching to be another kind of joy,” Travino says. “I like that you can go out in the world, have your own experiences and bring something valuable back to share with the kids.”
Travino adds that she’s happy to give back to SFArtsED, an organization she feels gave her a leg up as a performer.
“SFArtsED made me confident in my own craft,” she says. “It makes me realize how valuable and important these younger years are, especially in terms of training and discipline. It’s very serious while being incredibly fun.”
Lilli Wosk, who just came off the road as musical director for the tour of Diane Paulus’ Tony Award-winning Hair, has worked with SFArtsED for nine years and regularly returns to work with the children and the alumni. “They’re some of the most inspired an uninhibited humans to work with,” Wosk says. “The teaching artists are fantastic, but I think the alumni mentors, because they’re a little closer to the kids in age, are somehow more relatable.”
Wosk says that arts education is something she believes in wholeheartedly. “Our education system tends to put kids in boxes,” she says. “And not every kid fits. It can be easy to be defeated by academia, but the arts let kids feel special and important when sometimes it’s hard to feel that way. I also think learning how to be creative fosters social skills that you really need to be successful in any industry.”
SFArtsED Artistic Director Keeler notes that this year, the Tony Awards telecast revealed a new “Golden Age of the Child in Musical Theater,” with many shows currently on Broadway depending on the talents and special gifts that only young people can bring to the stage. “It may have surprised the audiences of that award ceremony or those in the theaters,” Keeler says, “how powerful 10-year-olds can be as performers. But we at SFArtsED trust that when children are given the right opportunities – great mentors, teachers, the right material and highest expectations – they make a magic on stage like no other.”
About On the Town
On the Town is one of those quintessentially great pieces of American musical theater. The original creative is a veritable who’s who of theater greats: composer Leonard Bernstein crafting his first full theatrical score; book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also wrote the screenplays for Singin’ in the Rain and the book and lyrics for Bells Are Ringing; choreography by Jerome Robbins, who would work with Bernstein again on the seminal West Side Story; and direction by George Abbott, whose work in the
1940s and ‘50s – Wonderful Town, Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, Fiorello! Among others – came to define the Golden Age of Broadway.
With such a solid team, it’s no surprise that On the Town was a huge hit from its opening in 1944 right up to the movie premiere – starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra – in 1949. What started out as a one-act ballet called Fancy Free (with music by Bernstein and choreography by Robbins) became a full-blown musical comedy romance about three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City and their adventures with fast-talking lady cab drivers, a beautiful anthropologist and Miss Turnstiles. The score includes the standards “New York, New York,” “Some Other Time,” “Lonely Town” and “I Can Cook Too.”
About SFArtsED and SFArtsED Summer
For nearly five decades, the San Francisco Arts Education Project has provided hands-on art experiences that expand minds, open hearts and ignite creativity. Since its founding in 1965 by acclaimed artist Ruth Asawa, SFArtsED has touched the lives of more than 200,000 children in the Bay Area through teaching artists in the public schools, after-school programs, internships, summer camp and musical theater troupe. Today, SFArtsED works with more than 70 professional, mid-career artists, making the organization one of the largest employers of artists in San Francisco. In the 2012-13 school year, SFArtsED had Artist-in-Residency programs in 25 public schools. SFArtsED Summer is in the midst of its 18th year offering visual and performing arts classes to children 6 to 14 years old taught by some of San Francisco’s best teaching artists.
About The SFArtsED Players
The SFArtsED Players is a musical theater company that reflects San Francisco in all its diversity. Hailing from the neighborhoods of the City and from around the Bay, the SFArtsED Players comprises 40 theater performers who come from SFArtsED’s performing arts residencies as well as from SFArtsED Summer camp. The young performers are selected for their talent, enthusiasm and commitment for the musical theater form. They work with directors of the company 10 hours each week, training as triple-threat actors-singers-dancers – and rehearsing for their performances. The company performs original musicals and revues as well as Broadway classics. The 2012-13 troupe represented 24 different Bay Area schools in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin County, including 15 public schools.
Photos: http://sfartsed.squarespace.com/sfartsed-players-galleries/
For more information or to set up interviews, photos or a rehearsal visit, please call 415 551-7990, e-mail chad.j@sfartsed.org.
> SFArtsED wins Izzy Award for
Sustained Achievement
The San Francisco Arts Education Project is the proud recipient of the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement for, “nearly 50 years of bringing professional arts education to San Francisco schools, and for over 25 years of developing dance education for San Francisco elementary and middle school populations. The organization presents in 25 schools, providing participatory experiences in the arts so that children are better equipped to make use of their creative abilities in all aspects of their lives.”
The award will be presented at a ceremony on Monday, March 23, 2013 at Z Space. Cria Merchant, an alumna of SFArtsED programs who went on to a professional dance career before heading into social work, will make the presentation of the award to SFArtsED’s artistic director Emily Keeler and program director Camille Olivier-Salmon, both of whom have been with the organization for 27 years.
“We are honored and touched to be recognized for the work we have been doing for these many years, connecting young people with the finest artists in our region in school residencies, exhibitions, workshops, our musical theater company, summer camps and performances,” Keeler says. “We are so very proud to bring to the young people of this city into the arts, and have had the keen pleasure for nearly 30 years of seeing the joy visual and performing arts bring students, including assisting some of them to find their way into the field professionally as visual artists, performers, choreographers and directors.”
The San Francisco Arts Education Project has provided arts education for children in powerful ways with artist teachers for nearly 50 years – more than 7,000 children each year. This 48-year-old organization, begun by noted artist Ruth Asawa, made a change in 1985 with a decision to invigorate the San Francisco public elementary and middle schools with dance programs alongside programs in the visual arts, theater musical theater and music. The change included a three-year collaboration with Jacques D’Amboise National Dance Institute and then 16 years of epic EVENTS performances, which featured hundreds of performing children in venues like the San Francisco Opera House, Palace of Fine Arts, Yerba Buena Center and Stern Grove. That change was the beginning of present-day SFArtsED, with classes and programs in 25 public schools.
“It has been an honor to work with an organization that has provided programs allowing students to experience the discipline and expression of the arts,” says Olivier-Salmon. “And through that experience, young people have been inspired to pursue the arts more seriously, to become lifelong art lovers and to benefit from the intrinsic demands, creativity and collaboration of many different art forms.”
About the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, known locally as the Izzies, are awarded annually to acknowledge exceptional creative achievements in the performance and presentation of dance. Awards are given in nine categories to honor the dancers, choreographers, designers, composers, dance companies, dance scholars and other individuals who have made important contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area’s thriving dance community.
During each 12-month performance cycle, running September 1 – August 31, the Committee collectively views over 400 eligible performances. The final nominees and honorees are selected at an annual voting meeting held in September after the close of the viewing cycle. Member profiles and lists of previous nominees and award winners are available online at www.izzies.org. The Izzies Committee is supported by donations from individuals, groups, the Zellerbach Family Fund and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.
> SFartsED summer musical:
Can you say Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!?
Oklahoma! brings together alumni, Players, summer ca
mpers
For a third summer, SFArtsED presents a glorious classic musical performed with a symphony orchestra. Following in the footsteps of Carousel and Guys and Dolls, SFArtsED is plea sed to present Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! performed one night only in a benefit for SFArtsED. Click to order tickets. Please note: the July 23rd performance is very close to selling out!
The cast includes alumni of SFArtsED programs, members of the SFArtsED Players youth musical theater troupe and students from the Broadway Bound program of SFArtsED Summer 2012. They will be accompanied by the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony under the direction of Henry Shin. Danny Duncan returns to direct the production. Tickets are on sale now.
Oklahoma!
Monday, July 23, 2012
7:30pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco
Tickets are $25-$45
Call City Box Office at 415.392.4400
www.cityboxoffice.com
[as of Friday, July 20, tickets are in extremely limited supply]
See more photos from Oklahoma! Click here.
> Visual arts exhibit announced –
INTERNATIONAL ORANGE: The Bridge Re-imagined
We've all admired and traversed that majestic national landmark in our own backyard. You know, the one painted in shades of what's known as "international orange." But now it's time to see that gorgeous span through new eyes. [click on the INTERNATIONAL ORANGE logo below to see a gallery of works in progress.] Visit our INTERNATIONAL ORANGE web page by clicking here.
The San Francisco Arts Education Project, in cooperation with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy presents INTERNATIONAL ORANGE: The Bridge Re-imagined, a curated visual arts exhibition created by students from San Francisco public schools to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge
.
May 14-August 4, 2012
The Mills Building, 220 Montgomery Street, San Francisco
Part of the “75 Tributes” program involving civic, cultural and educational organizations celebrating the legendary span across the Golden Gate Strait, INTERNATIONAL ORANGE allows San Francisco children, working with professional artists-in-residence in their public school classrooms, to creatively explore and re-imagine the national landmark in their own backyard.
More than 150 students from 12 participating elementary, middle and high schools around the city will display paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, collages, multimedia creations and more honoring the bridge as architecture, as art, as icon, as history, as metaphor, as gateway to imagination.
In collaboration with Artsource Consulting, the exhibit will feature as many visions of the Golden Gate Bridge as there are artists thinking about it in new and wildly creative ways. You think you’ve seen this famous span, but you should think again.
Veteran SFArtsED Artist-in-Residence Richard Olsen curates the exhibit, which will take place in the Mills Building as well as in "Bridge Galleries" – an array of galleries museums and alternative exhibition spaces – all over the city.
A very generous donor has pledged a $10,000 matching grant in support of the INTERNATIONAL ORANGE artists if we can raise $10,000 from our community. It's easy to make a gift online. Click here to support the vision and imaginations of our young painters, sculptors, dreamers and bridge re-imaginers.
For more information about the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary, visit the official website.
Take a look at this gallery of INTERNATIONAL ORANGE artwork in progress from artists in elementary school, middle school and high school.
> Guys and Dolls hit the jackpot.
The cast was perfection. The orchestra sublime. If you were one of the lucky people in the sold-out crowd for SFArtsED's summer production of Guys and Dolls, you know what a special evening it was as 70 young performers joined with the 36-piece Berkeley Summer Symphony for a staged concert production of Frank Loesser's Broadway classic. Graduates of SFArtsED programs returned from college or high school to take on leading roles and serve as mentors to current members of the SFArtsED Players musical theater troupe and to students from this summer's Broadway Bound program. The results were magic, as you can see for yourself.
> We're rolled the dice on Guys and Dolls.
Nathan Detroit, Miss Adelaide, Nicely-Nicely Johnson and the gang began life as characters in Damon Runyon short stories before they inhabited one of Broadway’s greatest musicals. This summer, they’ll gamble, lament and dance through Havana in the capable hands of some impressive young San Francisco performers and a full symphony orchestra.
The San Francisco Arts Education Project is pleased to announce a special one-night-only staged concert performance of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls on Monday, July 25, 7:30 p.m. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, 50 Oak St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$45 and available at City Box Office. Click here or call 415.392.4400.
The production boasts a cast of more than 60 and features a wide array of our students:
- In the lead roles are alumni of SFArtsED programs: the Artists-in-Residence programs in the public schools and after-school programs; they serve as mentors to the younger students.
- In supporting roles are members of the SFArtsED Players, the youth musical theater program now in its 11th season.
- In the ensemble are students from the SFArtsED Summer Broadway Bound program, some of whom are making their stage debuts.
Let our alumni performers tell you a little about the show:
The performers are accompanied by the 36-member UC Berkeley Summer Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Henry Shin. The production is directed by Danny Duncan, a celebrated local director and writer who has worked with SFArtsED for more than 20 years.
“Guys and Dolls is so iconic and so important in the history of musical theater,” Duncan says. “In my career, I’ve directed three productions of it with young people, and they love it. The music is fun, and the comedy is challenging. And it’s such a wonderful piece of Americana.”
“One of the wonderful things about our summer production is the return of our alumni, all of whom are off studying and performing and making their way toward great careers,” says Emily Keeler, SFArtsED artistic director. “They started their training with us and blossomed, so it’s gratifying to see them return and work with younger students who aim to follow in their footsteps. It’s absolutely inspiring to see the students become the teachers.”
Allen Darby, who is heading into his senior year as a theater major at the University of Southern California, began studying with SFArtsED more than 10 years ago. He’ll be playing Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls and says that the experience made him want to study theater and be a performer. “I liked that the teachers treated us like professionals, which meant that you worked hard, had fun and impressed audiences. Hearing applause for the first time – it’s what I wrote all my college essays about. I started out as a kid with ADHD bouncing off walls, and it took the discipline of the directors to focus me and make me serious. At school, I was that ‘weird theater kid,’ which made me stand out, helped me mature and gave me a creative outlet. The arts can really change somebody’s life.”
Duncan says that seeing the older students working with the younger is a “crowning achievement” in his 20-plus years with SFArtsED.
“We’ve helped raise a group of children into adults who are so enamored of what was given to them that they feel it’s necessary to come back and give back tenfold to younger people,” Duncan says. “It makes me feel so blessed and so rich to see these kids return from university and work with us during the summer, fostering younger performers and helping them the way they were helped.”
The Guys and Dolls creative team also includes other veterans of SFArtsED programs: accompanists Diana Lee and Luba Kravchenko, choreographers Natalie Greene and Erin Hewitt and costume designer Linda Ricciardi.
With Guys and Dolls, SFArtsED is also raising $50,000 in support of SFArtsED Scholarships. We're more than halfway there with $35,000 raised so far. Watch this video and find out more about how you can become part of the Guys and Dolls Donor Circle and visit www.sfartsed.org/donate.
For more ticket information visit City Box Office here. The show will sell out, so get your tickets now.
> More than 50 young performers honor the legacy of show-biz legend.
Cole Porter, you're the top. You're the Colosseum. How gratifying to watch 54 kids, ages 9 to 16, pay tribute to Cole Porter, the crown prince of American song. Yet another generation has discovered and embraced the wonder of gorgeous melodies filled with clever, romantic and hilarious lyrics from the dazzling mind of Mr. Porter. Experience this newfound Portermania for yourself as the SFArtsED Players present the world premiere of Everything Goes! The Music of Cole Porter.
W H E N > February 4-13 — six performances only!
- 7:00pm, Friday, February 4
- 2:00pm, Saturday, February 5
- 7:00pm, Saturday, February 5
(includes the Players Family Benefit Reception hosted by cabaret star Craig Jessup) - 2:00pm, Sunday, February 6
- 2:00pm, Saturday, February 12
- 2:00pm, Sunday, February 13
W H E R E > Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco
T I C K E T S > $20 adults, $15 students and seniors ($40 for the February 5 Players Family Benefit Reception at 7pm). Visit www.cityboxoffice.com or call 415.392.4400
This all-new revue includes some of Cole Porter's best-known songs such as "Begin the Beguine," "In the Still of the Night" and "I Get a Kick Out of You" alongside some lesser-known gems such as "Live and Let Live," "Never Be an Artist!" and "Ritz Rock and Roll." You've seen and loved Cole Porter, but never quite like this.
Click here to watch behind-the-scenes rehearsal videos.
> Students from over 40 SF schools come together. Not a stadium in sight: Carousel.
This was another event that underlines the arts aren’t all about paste and glue. (Although tight collaboration might make you think so.) Last summer kids fiercely teamed together, trained with professional Artist teachers and performed a disciplined, researched concert musical called Carousel: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s own favorite.
The kids were SFArtsED Players and SFArtsED Summer Camp students attending Broadway Bound sessions. They joined 15 SFArtsED Players Alumni, returning from programs in colleges and universities all over the country to work toward live performances with the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony. Go to our SFArtsED Players page for more.
You are the glue that keeps art education programs intact and that brings professional Artists-In-Residence to public schools — in every San Francisco corner and hill — all year long.
> The Players celebrates its 1st decade — performing what Time Magazine called the Best Musical of the 20th century — Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel!
Monday, July 19th is a very big deal for SFArtsED Players, Alumni, and the kids who’ve rehearsed long and hard at Summer Camp. They’ll be performing the concert version with the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony. At the stunning San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Plan on being there in a celebratory mood! See the ticket options below and raise a glass with all of us at the VIP Pre Show Reception, sponsored by Taste Catering.
W H E N > July 19, 2010 • Reception @ 6:30pm • Show @ 8:00pm
W H E R E > San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco
Summer 2010 in the rearview mirror.
What a blast.
We can’t believe another year has gone by. But that’s what happens when you’re clowning, dancing, sculpting, cartooning and singing the summer away.
SFArtsED Summer 2010 started with less but we ended up with more:
over 100 kids (from among 40 different SF public schools,) received full Camp scholarships.
To capture three Sessions and six weeks in just a few more words, here’s what we did last summer. The new half-days were a big hit. And bigger still, were the number of kids who took advantage of our new Renaissance Artist schedule: picking any Visual Arts class in the morning and Broadway Bound’s singing, acting and dancing challenges in the afternoon.
Speaking of Broadway Bound, Artistic Director Emily Keeler noted that it was one of the most talented groups to date. In addition to this session’s being one of the most popular yet. Some 58 of these kids aged 9-14, went on to perform Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in San Francisco and Berkeley with the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony. See our SFArtsED Players page for more about that summer coup.
The Visual Artists who chose to take say, Cartooning & Illustration in the morning and Sculpture & Clay in the afternoon, experienced sessions with no less than 4 different professional Artist teachers per day. We could go on, but, on to next year with your interest, feedback and (thanks in advance) your donations.
So what makes SFArtsED Summer Camp tick going on its 16th year?
We have a 45-year-old track record of joining school children with proven, professional Artists who are passionate — and experienced — in bringing participatory art to kids.
We recruit these teachers because they are accomplished. Enthusiastic. And have years of teaching experience. We invite you to go to the Who We Are section of this website to get to know more about our kids, our Mission, History and our prized Artists.
Download our 15th Annual SFArtsED Summer Camp Brochure to see last year's Program descriptions, schedules and enrollment information. Stay tuned for 2011!
> Get your seats now for our own Fiorello! Not that you’ll be able to stay in them.
It is going to be quite a performance come February. A cast of 30 SFArtsED Players will sing, act and dance (including a fabulous tap number) in a Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical. It’s a true story drama about New York’s turn of the century reformist Mayor, Fiorello H. LaGuardia. Have times changed? See for yourself.
JOIN US ON FEBRUARY 20th @ 2:00pm for our BENEFIT PERFORMANCE with host B.D. WONG, Tony Award winning actor and star of television’s Law and Order.
Tickets are on sale at cityboxoffice.com for February matinees and evening performances. For more information see our press release or call 415.551.7990.
> What happened with Henry?
We are delighted—but not at all surprised—to announce that Henry Shin, a Musical Director for SFArtsED Players, has just won a prize at the International Competition for Young Conductors at Besancon, France! He was the only American to make it to the semi finals, winning the Prix des Intenautes. A cash prize. And the honor of conducting a prestigious orchestra in Germany or France. Kids that know and adore him are high fiving it! As are we.
> The exclamation point is built in: “Fiorello!”
This is yet another first. SFArtsED Players will perform a choreographed big tap number, Gentleman Jimmy, as part of this production thanks to Katie Kerwin: a new member of the SFArtsED Players artistic team. A must, must see, if you’ve any first hand viewing of the princely talent our kids demonstrate through performance. (And especially if you haven’t.) Directed by our Master Artist Danny Duncan, rehearsals for the first act will be finished by Thanksgiving. And the cast of 25 will be performing “Fiorello!” at the Eureka Theatre in February: a spirited homage to the “little flower,” the 1930’s mayor of New York.
Keep checking here or on Facebook and we’ll let you know as soon as tickets go on sale at City Box Office. And we’ll answer this teasing question soon: who will the celebrity host at the Players Gala be???
> Can arts organizations work together? Just you watch.
There is no end to what kids celebrate when we combine resources, so valuable these days.
Watch: as Dan Krysten, Director of The School of the Arts Technical Theater, brings his students to build sets, design lighting and more, for SFArtsED Players’ Eureka Theatre performance of “Fiorello!”
Watch: the Theater Rhinoceros share sets with SFArtsED Players at the Eureka for their San Francisco premier of “Tick, Tick, Boom” as the SOTA students are mentored by their lighting designer.
Watch: as the Musical National Service chooses Paul Revere College Prep Academy to share their musical vision with SFArtsED Artists-In-Residence and kids. We’re one of only four American cities to be so honored.
> SFArtsED Summer Camp 2009. Past, and still very present.
It was a warm San Francisco summer. Three good floors for dance and circus skills. Big rooms that worked beautifully for visual arts studios, theater and rehearsals. A perfect little theater with great acoustics. And a summer the kids will not soon forget.
This was our first Summer Camp in the Mission, at Horace Mann Middle School. Kids were represented from over 85 schools, and 21 of them had students receiving scholarships!
Events for all of us? Taking our creative writing students to local cafes to compose like famous poets and novelists. Seeing showings of the kid’s final work viewed by scores of friends and families. The ability to give scholarships to 17% of our kids. And having our Superintendent of Schools, Carlos Garcias, come to see showings for our Broadway Adventure and tour programs with Horace Mann’s Principal, Mark Sanchez.
There was outdoor play spaces for the youngest Summer Camp students and ample room to display visual arts at the end of each of our sessions. And, we enjoyed 6 young former SFArtsED Players who joined to assist in the Broadway Adventure Camps with vocal coaching demonstrating in dance classes, choreographing and directing.
What did you do last summer?
> An event of a lifetime: Our own Henry Shin is off to an esteemed international conducting competition.
With us since 2002 Mr. Shin, a Musical Director for SFArtsED Players, is in France to compete at the International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon. It's perhaps the most prestigious of all conducting competitions — Seiji Ozawa and Lorin Maazel are winners from years past — and it closely equates to the Van Cliburn Competition for pianists. In all, 20 will compete for a Grand Prize and guest conducting opportunities all throughout Europe. We’re enormously proud of the caliber of talent at SFArtsED that Mr. Shin represents and we wish him all success. For more information, go to http://www.festival-besancon.com/index.php/concours/1
> Getting ahead of ourselves? Think not! Fiorello!, February, 2010.
Guts, yes. Honesty, yes. A great show of political promise and heart? Perfect timing. Once again directing for the SFArtsED Players, our musical troupe, is Mr. Danny Duncan, bringing us the rise to power of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. New York’s “Little Flower.” Originally produced in 1959, our “Players” will be also supported by the dynamic trio of Diana Lee as Musical Director, Natalie Greene as Choreographer and Robert Cowen as Vocal Coach.
Eureka Theater. First week of February. Stay tuned.