We are thrilled to announce we have received funding from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) to support our 2017 Detroit “Corporate to Corner Tour” comprised of 10 events reaching 1,300 students and adults this coming January.
This 5-day residency project in January 2017 will introduce chamber music to 300 Detroit workers at their 4 respective business, 600+ students at 3 Detroit schools lacking arts exposure, and 200+ community members with 2 pop-up performances in the city center, culminating in a formal evening concert for patrons with the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings on January 27th at 8 pm. Tickets are available for the DCWS concert event here. Detroit boasts numerous cultural outlets not taken advantage of by its thousands of daily commuters and local workforce. Due to limited school resources, Detroit school students are often unable to experience live and interactive musical performances. This residency aims to not only introduce Detroit employees, students, and community members to local live performing arts in the form of chamber music, but to change their perception of classical music by directly engaging them in free, contemporary performances, brought directly to them, and to encourage cultural exploration within their community. In addition to Akropolis, 15 Wayne County arts and culture nonprofits have received funding through MCACA's Minigrant program, administered by CultureSource. This project is also made possible with support from Chamber Music America through its Residency Endowment Fund.
Each interactive workplace concert will accomplish the goal of educating and increasing performing arts access, as Akropolis’ workplace performances are modeled after team-building activities that currently take place within these organizations. Akropolis selected companies that often host team building activities or "Lunch & Learns", encouraging their departments to participate during business hours. Akropolis will visit the Boll Family YMCA, the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and MacroConnect, an IT solutions company. During each workplace concert, 2 free tickets will be raffled off to see Akropolis live at our full-length recital with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings at the end of the residency.
At three Detroit elementary schools, Akropolis blends chamber music with the schools’ existing curricular activities with a program called “The Best Story”. First featured on their 2015 Fischoff Educator Tour, Akropolis presents a 45-minute interactive reading of Eileen Spinelli's "The Best Story". Akropolis also works with school instructors ahead of time to have students submit their own "best stories". Winners will be read out loud and put to music during the outreach events.
For spontaneous inspiration and to reach residents where they are least expecting it, 2 pop-up performances will be held at the Compuware Building lobby at 87 Monroe Ave. in Detroit, and the Detroit Renaissance Center's Winter Garden.
Akropolis continually seeks avenues for enriching students of the arts of all ages. Without government and foundation funding, as well as gifts from supporters like you, we would not be able to carry out this mission. If you are interested in supporting this educational residency as well as our upcoming educational programming, please consider making a gift of support online here.