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Celebrate Creativity

Celebrate Creativity 2019

On October 23rd, 2019, 16 students from Hampton Public Schools attended Celebrate Creativity at the Joslyn Art Museum held in conjunction with the Omaha Symphony.  Students participated in workshops such as: POW! (where they learned to throw a fake punch), Yes...and? (improvisation), Frightful Art (stage make-up showing bruises, wounds, and scars), Bust a Move! (hip-hop dance workshop), On Broadway (dance & acting), The Voice (singing with a profession voice coach), Words Up(create street style words & letters), Stokes of Genius (calligraphy), and Music Video Extravaganza (making a music video).
Students also went a docent guided tours through 1 of 4 sections of the museum. They either went on the Explore European Art Tour, American Art Experience Tour, Movements in Modern & Contemporary Art Tour, or Word and Image: The Saint John's Bible Tour which was a traveling art exhibit. While on these tours students interacted with the art doing different activities while in the galleries.
After lunch, students gathered in the Witherspoon Concert Hall to hear an interactive performance given by the Omaha Symphony. The symphony opened with Symphony No. 29 in A Major 1. Allegro moderato  written by Wolfgange Amadeus Mozart. They asked the audience the big question "What is Art?". They then had student performer Reese Pike on clarinet join the stage and perform with the orchestra "Concertino for Clarinet E-flat Major written by Carl Maria von Weber.
During the rest of the concert there were many interactive opportunities for students to get involved with what was happening on stage. The first interactive portion was connect with Stravinsky's Suite No. 2 for small orchestra. The composer made connections with dance and movement. Audience members where asked to think of what dance was associated with each movement: I. Marche (march), II. Valse (waltz), III. Polka, and IV. Galop. The audience was then asked "What makes something art?" and given guidelines they could use to help figure it out. The first guideline was does it have a presence of creativity and skill, the second was do it influence an emotional or intellectual response, and the third was does it have artistic purpose or intent. Students were then asked to use these guidelines while looking at work by artist Andy Warhol titled Campbell's Tomato Soup Can, listening to Charles Ives music titled "The Unanswered Questions, S. 50", listening to composer John Cages 4'33", and Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter". They then said that it is all subjective and the orchestra finished with Johannes Brahms- Variations on a Them of Joseph Haydn.

Celebrate Creativity 2018

On October 31st, 2018, 18 students from Hampton Public Schools attended Celebrate Creativity at the Joslyn Art Museum held in conjunction with the Omaha Symphony.  Students participated in workshops such as: POW! (where they learned to throw a fake punch), Yes...and? (improvisation), Illuminating Colors (how color and light can affect how you see the world), Frightful Art (stage make-up showing bruises, wounds, and scars), Ninja-101 (Tae Kwon Do), Bust a Move! (hip-hop dance workshop), On Broadway (dance & acting), The Voice (singing with a profession voice coach), The Stitched Line (create a drawing using a needle and thread), Stokes of Genius (calligraphy), Hypnotic Patterns (art that creates illusions of movement), and Music Video Extravaganza (making a music video).
Students also went a docent guided tour through 1 of 4 sections of the museum. They either went on the Explore European Art Tour, American Art Experience Tour, Movements in Modern & Contemporary Art Tour, or Patterns & Purpose: American Quilts Tour which was a traveling art exhibit. While on these tours students interacted with the art doing different activities while in the galleries.
After lunch, students gathered in the Witherspoon Concert Hall to hear an interactive performance given by the Omaha Symphony. The symphony opened with Symphonie Espagnole Mvt. 1 "Allegro non troppo"  written by Édouard Lalo featuring student performer Steven Pruss on the violin from Benson High School. During the concert there were many interactive opportunities for students to get involved with what was happening on stage. The first interactive portion was all about line and what makes a line. The audience participated in doing the wave and then so did the Omaha Symphony in slow motion. It was all about how the line only existed while being created. Then the host related line to music and how a line would sound in music and how different lines would also sound. While making these connections different images of quilts were displayed on the screen that was a visual representation of how the line that was being played would look visually.  The next portion of the concert focused on connecting lines with dance moves and how they only existed while being performed.  The last interactive portion had to do with visual art, music, dance, and color. They talked about the primary colors and what each color could represent. They connected each color to an emotion, a movement, and a sound. Students were given choices of different descriptive words that could be used to describe each color like loud and fast and then the symphony would play a song to fit those descriptive words to how that color would sound. The last song that the orchestra played was Billy the Kid Waltz by Aaron Copland. While the song was being played students were asked to think about how this song would look if it was a quilt? What kinds of lines and colors would be used?

Celebrate Creativity 2017

On October 25th, 2017, 16 students from Hampton Public Schools attending Celebrate Creativity at the Joslyn Art Museum held in conjunction with the Omaha Symphony.  The symphony opened with Hungarian Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra Op. 68  written by David Popper featuring student performer Anastasia Wilson on the cello. During this performance students were asked to think, observe, and reflect on the performance. Some questions were "What does this music make you think of?", "Does seeing someone near your age perform this piece affect your perception of it?", "Does is make it more relatable or interesting?" "How does it affect you?". During the concert there were many interactive opportunities for students to get involved with what was happening on stage. The first interactive portion was with an opera singer and the students in the audience set the scene for the story "The Pizza Guy", and how inflection in the voice of the opera singer can change the mood of the music. The next portion of the concert focused on how art forms combine to make something beautiful and how perception changes. They wanted students to see how the clip can change without music or sound effects and how music can enhance the experience.  The last interactive portion had to do with music and dance and three students were asked to lead the three different sections of the audience. Each student leader was to listen to the music being played and let it influence how they moved. Some of the different workshops students participated in were figure drawing, journal making, and video storytelling.

Celebrate Creativity 2016

Celebrate Creativity 2015

Celebrate Creativity 2014

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