| |
Global Education through the Arts is a community arts project that promotes intercultural competence among economically challenged youth living in South St. Louis city. The 16-week after-school program welcomes ethnically diverse youth to learn dance, poetry, drama, and cultural diversity as a way to cultivate social skills, team building, cross-cultural communication, and conflict resolution. Participants who successfully complete the program will have the opportunity to be involved with one of Gitana’s professional main stage productions.
Graduating students have worked side by side with professional actors in “Complacency of Silence: Darfur,” an original play produced by Gitana which received five Kevin Kline Award nominations for 2008. Students were also involved in the play, “My Heart is Always Shaking: Afghan Women Refugees in St. Louis,” nominated for “Best New Play” for 2009. S2G Performers (Southside to Global) represent some of our most talented students who tour throughout the St. Louis region utilizing dance, drama, and improvisation. This year the group performed “Living the Dream: MLK’s Dream Today,” reaching 1,200 people over a four week period including members of the Board of Alderman with the City of St. Louis, juvenile detainees, new immigrant and refugee youth with the ESOL International Welcome School and more.
Click Reviews
Students have a rich immersion into the community with trips to theater, dance and musical productions, radio and television stations, festivals and museums. Last year students went to a Pow Wow in Oklahoma learning about Native American culture, attended a Nigerian celebration, and experienced an interfaith celebration of Martin Luther King.
There is no fee for students to participate and transportation support is available for those in need. All of the art instructors are top professional artists in St. Louis. For more information or to register for an upcoming session, call 314-721-6556.
Gitana collaboratively works with St. Louis Public Library's Carpenter Branch, Harmony in Life, the International Welcome School and the African Mutual Assistance Program to meet our multicultural goals. Financial assistance has been provided by the Monsanto Fund and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency and a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Support also comes from the Regional Arts Commission, Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. Private donations are important to maintaining the program.
More about giving.
|
|
|
