Messiah College and community partners collaborate to teach theatre, Shakespeare and filmmaking to Harrisburg city youth through ArtsSmarts program

GRANTHAM, Pa.  (Sept. 22, 2006) — The Harrisburg Institute of Messiah College, an urban, residential learning and research community, announces its collaboration with three city arts agencies to bring art education to more than 300 youth within the Harrisburg School District.  The program, ArtsSmarts, is funded by a U.S. Department of Justice grant through the Harrisburg Institute’s Youth Empowerment Initiative, which networks with community partners using research-based mentoring strategies to reach at-risk youth within the Harrisburg School District.  Partnering with the Institute for Cultural Partnerships, the Gamut Theatre Group and Quiet as Kept Productions, Messiah College students and faculty will join theatre, filmmaking, writing and other creative professionals to provide after school and inter-curricular programming and mentoring to students at the William Penn School.  In partnership with the grantees, the Agape Center at Messiah College will coordinate Messiah students to participate as mentors in ArtsSmarts.

About the grantees

The Institute for Cultural Partnerships, working to facilitate opportunities for understanding among diverse cultures and communities, is partnering with Common Ground Theatre Center to provide quality, racially-diverse plays, thought-provoking family theatre and innovative education programs to build bridges between urban and suburban communities through the medium of live theatre.  For the ArtsSmarts program, artists, educators, community members and Messiah College students will be utilized to expose ninth through 12th graders to a variety of art forms, including the spoken word and writing, dance and movement, visual arts and theatre. Upon completing the ArtsSmarts program with the Institute for Cultural Partnerships and Common Ground Theatre Center, students will have participated in a poetry slam, learned dance moves and their history, designed a theatre set, created community artwork and performed publicly.

The Gamut Theatre Group, locally known for Popcorn Hat Players Children’s Theatre Co. and Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival, will use Shakespeare: Page to Stage to introduce Harrisburg city youth to the creative and professional aspects of theatre – everything from acting to light and costume design to working with a budget.  Professionals involved in this project will explore Shakespearean texts and identify Shakespeare’s contemporary relevance for students in grades seventh through 10th.

Quiet as Kept Productions will teach students the creative, business and technical aspects of filmmaking in its film and production course, LIGHTS-CAMERA-ACTION.  Through structured, progressive and interactive art-training courses in film, participating students will learn writing techniques, filming, editing and directing, audio and video production and product marketing from community creative writers, producers and artists.  The project will culminate in a local screening of the student-produced film.

About the Harrisburg Institute and Messiah College

Messiah College’s Harrisburg Institute develops strategies and solutions to address urban community concerns and help students, educators and community partners in the capital region learn from each other. Messiah’s long-term goal, working together with the Harrisburg community, is to establish the Institute as a premier regional model dedicated to linking higher education and community partners in the Harrisburg region.          

Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,800 undergraduate students in 50 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.