Student Outreach Program - Arts Bridge

  The Arts Bridge program expanded in 2005 to include a special presentation of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The production was staged by St. Mary’s College senior Megan Lehr, with the help of fellow drama students, as part of her SMC Senior Project. As a result we were able to share the learning experiences of outstanding SMC students with drama students from local middle and high schools. Megan’s project sought to recreate the atmosphere of the Olde Globe Theater with lively interaction between the College’s student actors and their younger audience. SMCPS students were also treated to special workshops before and after the performance, exposing them to the language and acting techniques in the times of the Olde Bard.

“But why not show the students that there was once a world without mass media where the actors were society’s outcasts rather than pop icons, and where it was the language itself that was a prized possession.” Megan Lehr, SMC Senior

 

St Mary’s County students visiting the College’s Boyden Gallery have been introduced over the years to a wide variety of visual art forms brought to the Gallery by artists from a spectrum of cultures and artistic disciplines. Gallery staff have also led the kids in hands-on exercises to stimulate student creativity and cement their understanding of the artists’ vision.

“As the students unwrapped the yarn to discuss how the pieces in the exhibit may have been related to each other, they revisited each personal discovery .” Susan McNeill, Arts Alliance Outreach Committee Chair

 

In 2006, in a project underwritten by the College, the Arts Alliance and St. Mary’s County Public Schools, violin, viola and bass orchestra, members from each of the County’s public high schools participated in master classes led by Maestro Jeffrey Silberschlag, fellow music professors and fellow Chesapeake Orchestra members. The classes were in preparation for a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with the Orchestra at celebration of Maryland Day . Maestro Silbershlag Profs. Jose Querto, ­­Suzanne Orban, Ed Malaga and Jennifer Rende rehearsed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with the students who came together at the end of the classes in an invigorating session with the entire Orchestra.

 

Since 2003, the St. Mary’s College Arts Alliance and the St. Mary’s County Public Schools have joined together in a partnership to bring the richness of the College’s diverse arts programs to County students. The Arts Bridge Program is aimed primarily at high school arts and humanities students and has brought hundreds of teens to the College’s facilities. For many of these kids, it was their first real opportunity visit to a college campus and to see what a college arts program might offer them. More recently, the program has also been available to St. Mary’s Ryken and Calvert County students on a more limited basis.

 

Students have an opportunity to visit the beautiful Campus Center Dining Room to choose from a delightful array of vegetarian and other healthful foods from the corners of the world. Just for a little while they are able to experience what it is like to be a student at the College during a busy mealtime.

 

Your support for this and other Arts Alliance programs is greatly appreciated. The Arts Alliance welcomes special contributions in support of the Arts Bridge Program.

For more information, contact Barbara Bershon, 240-895-4107