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ABOUT TOWN Spoleto ETC Happenings in 2020 – 2021
The stages of Spoleto Festival USA may have been dark in 2020, but Spoleto ETC (Engaging the Community)—the Festival’s community education and outreach initiative—was as active as ever. Spoleto ETC connects Festival artists and the broader community through three distinct avenues: tailored education programs for students; discussion series and partnerships with other area organizations; and investment in the advancement of young artists and arts administrators. Through meaningful dialogues, participatory workshops, and curriculum building, Spoleto ETC served more than 5,900 local, national, and international constituents in the past year. IN-SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAMS Omar Ibn Said Workbook
Chamber Music in the Schools
Illustrated by renowned artist Jonathan Green and written in partnership with South Carolina social-studies educators, this educational workbook introducing Omar Ibn Said was distributed to more than 3,000 students in the Charleston County School District this spring. The workbook is available online for teachers and parents to download and includes activities and prompts to aid in learning. Copies have been shared with Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and will also be housed in the Howard University library in Washington, DC, as a resource for educators.
This season, several Festival artists visited area schools virtually. In May, Director of Chamber Music Geoff Nuttall, violist and composer-in-residence Jessica Meyer, pianist Gilles Vonsattel, clarinetist Todd Palmer, and cellist Paul Wiancko took to the Dock Street Theatre stage to record two concerts--one distributed to elementary school students, and one shared with middle and high school students in the Charleston County School District.
Partnership with Engaging Creative Minds
Workshop with Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra
The Festival partnered with Charleston organization Engaging Creative Minds to craft curriculum related to Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography and the history of enslaved Muslims in South Carolina before the Civil War. This curriculum was introduced into public eighth-grade classrooms across the tri-county area this spring. Additionally, students in four schools took part in workshops with Charleston-based teaching artists—Marcus Amaker, Nakeisha Daniel, and Marielena Martinez—who brought their individual perspectives to Said’s story through hands-on visual, literary, and performing arts projects.
ADVANCEMENT FOR YOUNG ARTISTS
In early May, Festival Resident Conductor and Director of Orchestral Activities John Kennedy led a virtual workshop with four student instrumentalists of the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra. During the event, Kennedy shared various artistic and technical aspects a conductor or orchestra director listens for in auditions. He worked with the students master-class style as they played excerpts of audition pieces and offered pointers for students and attendees.
