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Saratoga Springs, NY (September 10, 2021) – Saratoga Performing Arts Center announces the launch this month of the SPAC School of the Arts, a multidisciplinary school dedicated to dance, music, and theater as well as literary, visual and media arts. SPAC also has announced that Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco will serve as the first visiting artist at the SPAC School of the Arts and will be a Mentor for the 2022 Adirondack Trust Company Festival of Young Artists.
The SPAC School of the Arts builds upon the legacy of Lewis A. Swyer, Marylou Whitney and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney who founded the National Museum of Dance and School of the Arts in 1987. The new School of the Arts will prioritize multi-cultural, multi-genre education for children and adults, while furthering SPAC’s ongoing mission to facilitate inclusion, equity and access in arts education. The School will operate out of the Lewis A. Swyer Studios, a state-of-the-art facility which opened in 1992 and is located behind the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, NY. It will include introductory and exploratory arts instruction for children of all abilities ages 4-18 – all designed to complement SPAC’s extensive education program, which currently serves 49,000 students throughout the Capital Region.
“Dedicated to year-round arts education, the SPAC School of the Arts is a thrilling addition to our rapidly expanding education programs,” says Dennis Moench, SPAC’s Senior Director of Education and the School Director.?“With this new venture, we look forward to providing a creative space where students can access and explore multiple art forms; make lasting connections to the world and each other; and discover their own passions for art making in a learning environment that is joyful, engaging and welcoming to all.”?
Presidential Inaugural Poet RICHARD BLANCO will serve as the SPAC School of the Arts’ first visiting artist. Driven by a desire to examine the essence of place and belonging, Blanco explores through his work his cultural identity as a Cuban-American and how we are shaped by experiences, memories, and our complex stories. As inaugural poet for President Obama and the first-ever Education Ambassador for the Academy of American poets, Blanco will bring to SPAC School of the Arts his passion for inspiring students through the close reading, writing and performing of poems. In collaboration with faculty, he will infuse poetry into the School’s multi-genre arts curriculum to deepen the students’ connections to each other and to the world around them.
To celebrate the opening of the School on September 18 at 10 a.m., Richard Blanco will recite “Declaration of Inter-dependence” and “Looking for the Gulf Motel,” two of his poems that will serve as inspiration for the winter 2022 semester. Blanco will lead workshops at the School throughout the semester, mentoring and guiding students to create a collaborative “Where we’re from” poem about their own cultures, communities and experiences. Students will engage their creativity, learning to become better writers and readers of poetry, while also discovering its life-affirming power, especially with respect to matters of diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality. As the literary arts mentor for the 2022 Festival of Young Artists, Blanco will select the poetry submissions to be featured in the festival. He will also mentor three poetry finalists.?
“Richard Blanco is one of the most deeply affecting, insightful poets today and we are delighted to bring him to Saratoga as our first visiting artist,” says Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center who is also an Academy of American Poets Board Member. Guiding an exploration of the larger questions of ‘where do I belong’ and ‘what is home,’ he will help us examine deeper issues that spark conversation and understanding on cultural identity and diversity -- teaching our aspiring poets how to connect to the heart of human experience.”
About Richard Blanco
Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity and place characterize Richard Blanco’s body of work. He is the author of the poetry collections Looking for the Gulf Motel, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, and City of a Hundred Fires; the poetry chapbooks Matters of the Sea, One Today, and Boston Strong; a children’s book of his inaugural poem, “One Today,” illustrated by Dav Pilkey; and Boundaries, a collaboration with photographer Jacob Hessler. His latest book of poems, How to Love a Country (Beacon Press, 2019), both interrogates the American narrative, past and present, and celebrates the still unkept promise of its ideals. He has also authored the memoirs The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood and For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey. Blanco’s many honors include the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and two Maine Literary Awards. Blanco has continued to write occasional poems for organizations and events such as the re-opening of the U.S. embassy in Havana.
About SPAC’s Education Programs
Each year, SPAC’s free education programs reach more than 49,000 young individuals, offer more than 400 classes, presentations, performances, and events, and partner with more than 120 schools and non-profit organizations across the greater Capital Region. SPAC’s flagship educational offerings include the in-school “Classical Kids” music and dance program; “Ballet in Fifth” with dancers from New York City Ballet; in-school dance residencies with SPAC teaching artists; and its annual signature event “The Adirondack Trust Company Festival of Young Artists,” which celebrates hundreds of student dancers, singers, musicians, poets and visual artists. In 2020, SPAC’s education program created free online content for students, families and educators at a time when previously scheduled in-school presentations and classes were not feasible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The continuing virtual platforms include “The Festival of Young Artists Online Gallery” and “The SPAC Learning Library.”
The launch of the SPAC School of the Arts is made possible with support from Stewart’s Shops and the Dake Family. Additional funding from the Charles R. Wood Foundation will go toward tuition assistance, supplies, instruments and transportation. Online registration for fall classes begins on August 18th. For more information or to learn how to register for classes, visit spacschool.org. ?
About the Saratoga Performing Arts Center
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), located in the historic resort town of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, is one of America’s most prestigious summer festivals. Its tranquil setting in a 2,400-acre park preserve surrounded by hiking trails, geysers, and natural mineral springs draws vacation crowds and arts connoisseurs each year for immersive experiences of performances by resident companies New York City Ballet, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, Opera Saratoga, and concerts by Live Nation. SPAC also hosts CulinaryArts@SPAC events in addition to imaginative programming such as the popular “SPAC on Stage” series and Caffè?Lena @ SPAC.
SPAC is a 501c3 charitable organization. Donations and proceeds from fundraising events benefit the Center’s children’s education programs and support the vibrancy of its classical season. For more information visit spac.org.
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