Free YAMA Arts-For-Learning Showcase

Boston, MA – On Thursday, September 17 from 9:15 AM -1:15 PM, Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) invites parents, teachers and youth arts coordinators from around the Commonwealth to Fay School in Southborough for an inspiring day filled with special preview performances of arts programs designed specifically for schools and other learning centers. Attendees will join audiences of Pre-K—8th grade students in discovering our growing roster of artists, who represent a broad spectrum of cultures and arts genres.

Performances will take place throughout Fay’s campus as auditoriums become theaters and classrooms become concert halls. Participants register, grab a schedule and then plot out a day of watching masterful performers introduce young people to dance, music, theater, puppetry,

ex. 305 storytelling and visual arts, using these disciplines to bring world cultures and academic subjects to life.

Attendance is free, and pre-registration is available online at http://yamass.org/news-and-events/showcase.

YAMA’s Fall 2015 Artist Showcase will include 20-minute preview versions of many of their best-loved programs as well as new programs from Hip Hop Dance Troupe and U.S. Cultural Ambassadors Ill Style & Peace Productions and master illusionist and storyteller Leland Faulkner. New YAMA teaching artist Nancy Bell, will be performing Spinning History: Heroines on the Homefront, a visual arts and women’s history program about the role the art of spinning played in the American Revolution.

In addition to viewing special preview performances of these programs, showcase attendees will have the opportunity to meet YAMA’s new executive director, Julie McConchie, who joined the organization in August.

“I am personally blown away by the talent, diversity and incredible energy of YAMA’s artists,” McConchie says, “I simply cannot wait to show them off and to meet this year’s group of school arts champions.”

“The showcase is not only a great opportunity to choose your programming for the year,” says Jason Rabin, YAMA’s Marketing Manger, “you get a chance to see Ben Franklin deep in conversation with a Chinese acrobatics master, to talk to a folksinger and a Flamenco dancer, and to rock out to roots music and Brazilian percussion. It’s a fun day!”

ABOUT YOUNG AUDIENCES OF MASSACHUSETTS

Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) is a non-profit established in 1962 with the mission to “initiate life-long involvement in the arts by making them integral to every child’s education.” The organization works with artists, schools and community partners to find, develop and implement programming which leverages the many powers of the arts to strengthen learning skills, bring curriculum vibrantly to life and to introduce students to unfamiliar cultures and new modes of self expression.

After 50 years of service to Massachusetts, schools, libraries, museums and other learning centers throughout the Commonwealth have come to think of YAMA as the go-to resource for arts education programs—performances, hands-on workshops, and in-depth residencies—which are sure to be of the highest artistic quality and are also guaranteed to tie-in to state curriculum frameworks.

YAMA is one of 32 affiliates of Young Audiences, Arts-For-Learning, the largest arts education network in the country. This network provides access to leading researchers, arts education conferences and training guides for assessment and learning. Young Audiences, Inc. requires an accreditation review every five years, certifying that our chapter meets national standards of excellence in program and professional development.

To learn more about YAMA or about the upcoming Annual Artist Showcases, visit yamass.org or contact Jason Rabin at jrabin@yamass.org.