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ArtsUP! LA is a nonprofit theater and arts organization serving people of different abilities, military veterans, and Los Angeles based youth. We remove barriers to participation and provide unlimited possibilities for artistic expression, building diverse artists and audiences who are changing how the arts are presented and experienced.
Below are examples of how we are transforming lives through our programs. |
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CREATIVE YOUTH THEATRE
The Need:
Only 4% of elementary schools offer theatre. Disadvantaged youth often feel disconnected from their communities and don’t have the pathways they need in order to be successful in school, career, and life. (Source: Americans for the Arts. 2013. Facts & Figures. Washington, DC.)
Our Impact:
Our Creative Youth Theatre program is targeted to Los Angeles based students and are designed to inspire and improve student success, both academically and personally.
The Need:
Only 4% of elementary schools offer theatre. Disadvantaged youth often feel disconnected from their communities and don’t have the pathways they need in order to be successful in school, career, and life. (Source: Americans for the Arts. 2013. Facts & Figures. Washington, DC.)
Our Impact:
Our Creative Youth Theatre program is targeted to Los Angeles based students and are designed to inspire and improve student success, both academically and personally.
THEATRE BY THE BLIND
The Need:
Vision impairment has been identified as 1 of the 4 most significant contributors to lost independence. (Source: Alliance for Aging Research. Independence for Older Americans: An Investment for Our Nation’s Future. Washington, DC: Alliance for Aging Research; 1999)
Blindness follows only cancer and AIDS as the biggest health fear by the public. (Source: American Foundation for the Blind. Quick Facts and Figures on Blindness and Low Vision. 2003)
Our Impact:
Theatre by the Blind is the only theatre troupe in the country with an entirely blind cast performing original works. Our participants are not only blind but many also suffer from other ailments and challenges causing them to feel shy, awkward, and further isolated from the world. Theatre by the Blind gives participants a forum in which they can safely explore space to gain mobility and independence.
The Need:
Vision impairment has been identified as 1 of the 4 most significant contributors to lost independence. (Source: Alliance for Aging Research. Independence for Older Americans: An Investment for Our Nation’s Future. Washington, DC: Alliance for Aging Research; 1999)
Blindness follows only cancer and AIDS as the biggest health fear by the public. (Source: American Foundation for the Blind. Quick Facts and Figures on Blindness and Low Vision. 2003)
Our Impact:
Theatre by the Blind is the only theatre troupe in the country with an entirely blind cast performing original works. Our participants are not only blind but many also suffer from other ailments and challenges causing them to feel shy, awkward, and further isolated from the world. Theatre by the Blind gives participants a forum in which they can safely explore space to gain mobility and independence.
REX & FRIENDS
The Need:
1 in 36 (or 2.8%) of children in the US were identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. Youth with ASD experience lower connectivity between the brain hemispheres. This means they struggle with tasks that require them to combine information from various parts of the brain, such as speech, complex motor tasks, or social interaction.
Our Impact:
For people living with the challenges of autism, alternative avenues of communication can provide a pathway for the autistic mind to bridge the gap towards interconnection; music is that bridge. Rex & Friends helps individuals of different abilities find their way across the bridge through music and performance. Music can transform their lives by offering important cognitive, social and emotional benefits. People who are blind or autistic need extra support (physical assistance, adapted programs, private settings) to access the benefits of enrichment provided by music education and performances.
The Need:
1 in 36 (or 2.8%) of children in the US were identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. Youth with ASD experience lower connectivity between the brain hemispheres. This means they struggle with tasks that require them to combine information from various parts of the brain, such as speech, complex motor tasks, or social interaction.
Our Impact:
For people living with the challenges of autism, alternative avenues of communication can provide a pathway for the autistic mind to bridge the gap towards interconnection; music is that bridge. Rex & Friends helps individuals of different abilities find their way across the bridge through music and performance. Music can transform their lives by offering important cognitive, social and emotional benefits. People who are blind or autistic need extra support (physical assistance, adapted programs, private settings) to access the benefits of enrichment provided by music education and performances.
VETERANS EMPOWERMENT THEATRE
The Need:
Veterans are twice as likely as other Americans to become chronically homeless; Homelessness among veterans is often due to limited education and lack of transferable skills from military to civilian life and due to combat-related physical and/or mental health issues and disabilities. (Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.)
Our Impact:
Veterans Empowerment Theatre features a variety of performing arts workshops and opportunities that give our nation’s brave service members a safe environment to voice their own heroic stories, personal tragedies, triumphs, and experiences through theatre.
The Need:
Veterans are twice as likely as other Americans to become chronically homeless; Homelessness among veterans is often due to limited education and lack of transferable skills from military to civilian life and due to combat-related physical and/or mental health issues and disabilities. (Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.)
Our Impact:
Veterans Empowerment Theatre features a variety of performing arts workshops and opportunities that give our nation’s brave service members a safe environment to voice their own heroic stories, personal tragedies, triumphs, and experiences through theatre.
1,081People served each year
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5,050Audience members inspired each year
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30Average number of productions each year
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30Artists placed in Los Angeles schools
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TRANSFORMING LIVES, ONE SHOW AT A TIME
Performing with a group, stepping into a new character, bravely telling your story to a new audience…these actions allow our participants to rewrite their life narratives, imagine new possibilities for themselves, and use creative expression to transform their lives.
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT US...
"ArtsUP! LA provides my English learning students with an opportunity to accelerate their English language development through an engaging medium. Through the creation of original plays and performances, students employed important 21st Century skills, thus extending their learning way beyond the classroom."
Rafael Alvarez
Principal, Los Angeles Elementary School
Rafael Alvarez
Principal, Los Angeles Elementary School
"I saw my first play put on by this wonderful organization last night, November 15th. I knew some of the actors that were involved in the play. Everyone did an outstanding job. I can’t recommend this play enough. I wish I could go back and see it again. The play was audio described, and the audience was into all of the action provided by this marvelous cast. All of you did a wonderful job. I can’t wait to the next event."
Lynn
Theatre by the Blind Audience Member
Lynn
Theatre by the Blind Audience Member
"I have no doubt in my mind that the show in October will touch hearts and change lives forever. Once the people take their seats for the show, I have great faith that they will see just exactly what we’re truly made of. We may have to do things differently in daily life, but we still manage to thrive in the world. We break the barriers around us, look the world in the face and show them that living life without our sight is possible."
Matthew Saracho
Member, Theatre by the Blind & ArtsUP! LA Board of Directors
Matthew Saracho
Member, Theatre by the Blind & ArtsUP! LA Board of Directors
"Creative Youth Theatre provides a truly unique atmosphere based on non-competiveness and collaboration, where authenticity rules the day and there is no “right” way to act- there’s only the discovery of your own authentic voice as a creative person, respect for other people’s creative choices, and the joy that come from true process and collaboration."
Parent of Creative Youth Theatre Participant
Parent of Creative Youth Theatre Participant
"Theatre by the Blind has changed my life in so many ways. It has given me confidence and has empowered me to see my disability as a strength, rather than a weakness."
Sheila Walker
Member, Theatre by the Blind
Sheila Walker
Member, Theatre by the Blind
"In Theatre by the Blind, each script offers a chance to escape and transform into a range of characters. Offstage, (the actors) each have their own real-life dramas of how glaucoma, detached retinas or gunshots robbed their sight — at birth, as teenagers, and as adults."
Esmerelda Bermudez
LA Times
Esmerelda Bermudez
LA Times
"I am a father of four beautiful children and I served in Bosnia Herzegovina with the US Army. Before New Directions, I was homeless and addicted to Meth. Now I attend college and am on the road to independent living! This play has been a forum for my original music and has helped me confront my past."
Michael Delacruz
VET participant
Michael Delacruz
VET participant
"I rarely see a performance that makes me tear up, not the kind of tears from sadness, the kind that come from sheer joy. The endearing stage production of "Yesterday’s" with its all blind cast did just that."
Rosé Desena
The Los Angeles Post
Rosé Desena
The Los Angeles Post
"Every now and again an inspired piece arrives in the theatre which gives its audience relatable and very real insight about life as we know it, or answers questions about what we don’t. It’s not that there is a higher wisdom or hidden Yoda-like message imparted in this presentation. Rather, there is a certain empathy, understanding and assent that is lent to the audience, the players and the subjects involved."
Tracey Paleo
Audience Member
Tracey Paleo
Audience Member
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