Connie Walters, Network Coordinator
Partners for Arts Education
501 West Fayette Street, Studio 221
Syracuse, NY 13204
Phone: 315-234-9911
E-Mail Connie Walters
Web: www.arts4ed.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


May 7, 2008

Choreographer Christal Brown to Speak and Teach at Community Folk Art Center
Who: Christal Brown, dancer and choreographer
Where: Community Folk Art Center, 805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse
When: Friday, May 16th, 6:00 pm
What: talk, demonstration, followed by reception

Cost: Free
Christal Brown

Christal Brown, artistic director of INSPIRIT, a dance company in New York City, will present an informal lecture/ demonstration on Friday May 16th at 6 pm at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), 805 East Genesee Street. The talk will be followed by a reception.

The lecture/demo and reception are free and open to the public. To attend, please call Imagining America at 443-8590.

Christal Brown has toured with Chuck Davis’ African-American Dance Ensemble and Andrea E. Woods/ Soul Work. Brown has also performed with and managed the Gesel Mason Performance Project while apprenticing with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange just outside of Washington, DC. Upon relocating to New York City, Brown apprenticed with the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company before finding a home with Urban Bush Women where she spent three seasons as a principle performer, community specialist, and apprentice program coordinator.

Additionally, Ms. Brown will offer a series of master classes to middle school dancers involved in the Kuumba Project at CFAC Wednesday through Friday, May 14th - 16th.

The Kuumba Project: An Urban Arts Education Program was designed by the Syracuse University South Side Initiative office in collaboration with the Community Folk Art Center as a pre-professional after-school training program for artistically gifted children. Kuumba provides scholarships and is the only program of its kind in the city.  Syracuse City School District youth between the ages of 11 and 13 auditioned and were selected in the areas of dance, music, visual art, writing, and theater. The objective is for the students to continue in the program until they graduate from high school (providing funding is secured). The Kuumba Project enables them to be prepared to compete for admission in the best conservatories and visual and performing arts colleges in the country.

Brown’s visit is part of The Hyphenated Artist Series, a collaboration between Partners for Arts Education and Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. The series is supported by Enitiative, the Syracuse campus-community Entrepreneurship Initiative, funded by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, MO, focusing on entrepreneurship in the arts, technology, and our neighborhoods. This project is the first phase of a larger initiative to incubate new opportunities with those in the arts and cultural sector.

 

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Partners for Arts Education inspires learning and leadership for arts in education in Central New York and throughout New York State. We provide funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the arts for students, teachers and artists.

 

Partners for Arts Education
Delavan Center Suite 221  501 W. Fayette St.  Syracuse, NY  13202
315.234.9911  info@arts4ed.org  www.arts4ed.org

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