Arts4All! Collaborative
Through the Arts4All! Collaborative, SMCR provides opportunities to its participants for inclusion and active engagement in the visual, literary, and performing arts in collaboration with schools, agencies, and organizations serving this population.
The arts help us to dispel myths about ability and disability.
Specific efforts focus on art, music, theater, dance and writing. It has been proven that such an approach has tremendous benefits to the participants as well as the community as a whole.
Shared art experiences can build our communities in a way that nothing else can. It’s amazing the potential uncovered when more people are included and the shifts it can precipitate in a community.
The Flash Mob
We were so excited to perform our first-ever flash mob at the Dotting of the Eye Ceremony for the Solomons Dragon Boat Festival! With 23 performers and nearly 100 spectators, we'd say we "crushed" it!
Arts4All Collaboratve Programs
SMCR is working with local arts communities, schools, individuals, and agencies providing services to people living with disabilities in Southern Maryland to guide our projects. Planned activities include:
A Night With Newtowne
Enjoya night our where you can be you! Watch a show performed by the Newtowne Players. No need to get up on stage for this one. This event is free to SMCR members.
Flash Mob
To celebrate the Solomons Dragon Boat Festival, choreographer Kristin Kauffman led 23 participants with all abilities through a fun, memorable dance to the tune of "Firework".
Open Mic Night
Come out and share your talents on the 4th Friday of every month. The mic will be available during Game Night in St. Mary's County. Do you sing, dance or tell a great joke? We'd love to hear it in front of a crowd!
Engaged in Learning
An Inclusive High School Visual and Performing Arts Project
Celebrating the unique and individualized abilities and talents of high school students with developmental, intellectual and physical disabilities in a familiar, supportive, artistic environment.
An Innovative Approach
Engaged in Learning is an innovative approach to addressing a longtime challenge - the lack of quality inclusive after school or activity period programs that foster a sense of belonging and equality with peers.
A study by Americans for Arts found that young people who participate in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and three times more likely to be awarded for school attendance, among other benefits.
Student Engagement
The Engaged in Learning program is an integrated after school or activity period program. It aims to enhance the educational social experiences of teens from Special Education classrooms and peers from the school’s Best Buddies, art and theater clubs. It provides structured and appropriate visual art and performance projects in a supportive reverse inclusion environment, facilitated jointly by the Special Education teachers and Arts4All artists.
Recognizing a Need
Most major urban areas have focused on school art education programs supported by public-private funds, including inclusive art programs designed for special needs students. There are no such funded programs in rural areas like Southern Maryland. Our Engaged in Learning program aims to fill this void and provide a nurturing atmosphere of development in the arts, specifically structured for students with intellectual disabilities and supported by the larger student population, to guarantee a rewarding and beneficial experience.