TAIKOPROJECT
Friday, October 4, 2024
2024–2025 Season ARTSReach
Your class attends these shows for free.
Reserve your tickets today!
ARTSReach provides free performances and museum tours for thousands of K–12 schoolchildren each year on the Malibu campus of Pepperdine University. ARTSReach performances are in the intimate 500-seat Smothers Theatre. All performances last about one hour.
DERINA HARVEY BAND
Fearless front woman Derina Harvey leads this Canadian Celtic rock group that offers a fresh take on traditional folk songs as well as its own original music. With its rocky, rhythmic undertow layered with guitars, fiddle, and topped by Derina’s powerful voice, the group has earned praise for its high-energy live shows and pandemic-era sea shanties. Nominated for the Fans’ Choice Entertainer of the Year from the East Coast Music Awards in 2024. derinaharvey.com
Thursday, October 10, 2024 | 11:45 am Grades 3–6
TAIKOPROJECT
A dynamic contemporary blend of taiko, music, storytelling, and choreography, TAIKOPROJECT unites ancient Japanese tradition with 21st-century American innovation in pure "drum nirvana" (Fresno Bee). Inspired by Benzaiten, the Japanese goddess of everything that flows, their concerts combine percussive power and strength with consummate grace and movement. taikoproject.org
Friday, October 4, 2024 | 10 and 11:45 am Grades 3–6
Photo credit: Knocking Bird Creative Photography
Photo credit: Paramount Theatre
PILOBOLUS
Combining gymnastics, weight sharing, pop dance, and performance art in a delightfully whimsical human circus, the innovative, award-winning dance troupe Pilobolus wears its revolutionary stripes on its sleeves. Pilobolus’ signature aptitude for combining wit, sensuality, and stunning physical acumen is sure to thrill and surprise audiences. pilobolus.org
Monday, December 9, 2024 | 11 am
Grades 4–6
SONS OF MYSTRO
“Our protégés, Sons of Mystro, are an innovative musical force that is ready to take the world by storm.” —Black Violin Brothers Malcom and Umoja learned to play violin through South Florida’s public school system and attended Dillard High School for the Performing Arts. As Sons of Mystro, the brothers use their violins to interpret reggae classics, American pop songs, and their own creations accompanied by a DJ and a drummer. The duo is the winner of the Emerging Artist Under 21 Years Old Award at the International Reggae and World Music Awards. Join us for this high-energy celebration! sonsofmystro.com
Friday, October 18, 2024 | 11:45 am
Grades 6–12
THE PA’AKAI WE BRING Honolulu Theatre for Youth
The Pa’akai We Bring introduces audiences to the Native Hawaiian relationship to pa’akai (salt). Traditionally, pa’akai is food, medicine, a sacrament, and a treasured gift. The play follows a family with multiple generations of salt farmers on Kauai, mixing in ancient stories, hula, live music, original songs, and plenty of audience participation into a tasty potluck of performance, joyously served up with aloha.
holdenarts.org/pa-akai-we-bring-23-24
Friday, January 31, 2025 | 10 and 11:45 am
Grades K–4
Photo credit: David I. Muir
Pepperdine Student Activities presents DANCE IN FLIGHT
For more than 30 years, Dance in Flight has provided a space for student dancers and choreographers from Pepperdine University to cultivate creativity in a professional performing atmosphere. The company members come from a variety of dance backgrounds and fields of study. United by their passion for the art of movement, they are dedicated to presenting an impressive showcase of student artistry. pepperdinedif.org
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | 10 am Grades 2–5
CIRQUE KALABANTÉ
Inspired by daily life in Guinea, Yamoussa Bangoura’s Afrique en Cirque shares the beauty, youth, and artistry of African culture. A colorful show beyond its scenery, costumes, and staging, this performance represents the strength, agility, and joy for life of young Africans. The audience will see acrobats execute gravity-defying moves and human pyramids, accompanied by the contemporary sounds of live Afro-Jazz, percussion, and kora. kalabanteproductions.com
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 | 11:45 am Grades 3–8
LETTERS ALOUD: THANKS BUT NO THANKS— THE GREATEST REJECTION LETTERS EVER
Hilarious and heartfelt, Letters Aloud captivates audiences with poignant and authentic stories from real people’s letters. Showcasing humanity’s resilience and humor on the road to success that’s paved with rejection, the show’s newest highlights include Stephen King’s first Spacemen Magazine rejection, Andy Warhol's reclamation of a painting before it’s hauled away, and a 17-year-old college applicant's rejection of Duke University’s rejection letter. But it doesn’t end with rejection. Karma and perseverance combine to have hilarious and heartwarming results! lettersaloud.com
Thursday, March 27, 2025 | 11:45 am Grades 3–8
TOUR THE WEISMAN MUSEUM OF ART WITH YOUR CLASS!
Guided tours of the museum are available before or after performances, or at specially arranged times at no cost. Call 310.506.4766 to reserve a tour. Space in the museum is limited; priority will be given to groups that have reserved tours in advance.
CAMERON HARVEY: THE SHAPE OF BEING
August 24–December 8, 2024
For her first solo museum exhibition, Cameron Harvey shares a new body of work inspired by her walks in the Santa Monica Mountains. Her paintings and sculptures are based on the formal qualities of the human body and their similarities to local flora and rock formations, prompting us to reflect on the universal aspects of the human experience and our relationship to our environment.
LOOP, HUM, WAVE
August 24–December 8, 2024
Loop, Hum, Wave presents a selection of works by Pepperdine fine arts faculty exploring the passage and movement of time. Across diverse subjects and mediums, these works engage memorialization, self-documentation, aging, childhood, nostalgia, and imagined and alien life, connected by an understanding of the flux of space and time.
JAMES CLAR: POWERS OF TEN
January 11–March 30, 2025
Featuring the artist’s signature light sculptures, videos, and installations, James Clar’s first solo museum exhibition explores sensory experience and personal narratives through the lens of technology and new media. In Powers of Ten, Clar reflects on personal transformation and his journey across the globe from New York to Manila.
ISABEL YELLIN: MOTHERSHIP
January 11–March 30, 2025
Mothership, Isabel Yellin’s first solo museum exhibition, represents a new era in her work, aiming to give form to the defenses we build around ourselves in the wake of profound loss. In a new series of abstract paintings and relief sculptures, Yellin reflects on her own experiences of trauma, loss, and grief, pairing her work for the first time with recently discovered paintings by her late mother, Anne Locksley.
Major exhibitions are held in the Gregg G. Juarez Gallery and Ron Wilson-Designer Gallery in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. Isabel Yellin: Mothership is supported by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance. Always free, the museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, 11 am–5 pm, and on most Smothers Theatre performance days until showtime. For current hours or more information about exhibitions, programs, and accessibility, call 310.506.4851, visit arts.pepperdine.edu/museum, or follow the Weisman Museum on Facebook and Instagram @weismanmuseumofart
Cameron Harvey, Ancestor 29, 2024, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: David Daigle. ©2024 Cameron Harvey
APPLY FOR TICKETS TO AN ARTSREACH PERFORMANCE!
1. Complete the application by scanning the QR code to fill out the online submission form or going online to arts.pepperdine.edu/events/artsreach/ artsreach-submission.htm
2. If we are able to accommodate your request, you will be notified by email.
3. If we are able to accommodate your request, you will be asked to send a $1-per-seat deposit.
Seating is limited. Applications are filled on an as-is-available basis and allocated to maintain a balance of local and out-of-area schools, as well as those new to the program. Prior attendance records are also considered. A limited number of bus grants are available to schools showing financial need.
Questions? Call our ARTSReach coordinator at 310.506.4766.
Each year Pepperdine’s ARTSReach program, supported by the Center for the Arts Guild, inspires thousands of schoolchildren from Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. These free arts experiences enrich the lives of children with world-class performances and art museum tours.
The guild supports many programs, but its primary focus is to support ARTSReach. If you would like to become involved in this important program or sponsor a bus, please contact the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at 310.506.4594.