With support from the California Arts Council, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts will provide approximately 350 students in grades 4-6 at three of Richmond’s most under-resourced elementary schools with nine weeks of instruction in Mexican/Latin American folk music and storytelling with teaching artists Dolores “Lolis” Garcia and Claudio Naranjos Vega, local Son Jarocho artists.
1) Training/Instruction: Year-round comprehensive courses, private instruction, recitals & student support services at the Center’s state-of-the-art facility nurture 350 students ages 3-18, including 110 Young Artist Diploma Program students, who represent the most committed 7th-12th graders in our program. The Center provides them with an intensive year-round, 6-year, tuition-free, cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary (music, theater, dance) performing arts program. 2) School Partnerships: Provides foundational music, dance and theater instruction for 3,700 students at 17 Title I TK-12 public schools & 4 community centers, along with professional development for 50 public school classroom. 3) Artistic Productions: The Center’s “Call & Response” program involves our 7 youth/young adult performing resident companies (90+ students) reaching local audiences of 20,000+ annually through more than 75 community gatherings, recitals and the creation of new work.

