Celebration brings arts to Utah schoolchildren

Youth from around the valley enjoyed a special treat Oct. 10 — a performance of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

The production, which involved live actors, puppets and singing, kicked off the 2006-07 Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, sponsored by YouthCity Artways, the arts education component of Salt Lake City's YouthCity program.

The Imagination Celebration is an ongoing arts education festival that brings world-class artists, events and performances into Salt Lake City schools and communities. Salt Lake City is one of only six Imagination Celebration sites selected by the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., said Megan Davis Brown, communications coordinator for YouthCity Artways.

Almost 2,000 students from around the valley saw the traveling production in two matinee performances. An evening performance open to the public drew 350 people, Brown said.

"Art is being put to the side, and we're trying to bring that back into the schools," she said. "Through the Imagination Celebration we partner with other organizations to provide high-quality events for students and teachers. Everything we do is part of Imagination Celebration professional development."

Two weeks prior to the kickoff, teachers from around the valley were invited to a professional development workshop taught by someone from the Kennedy Center. Pieter Lingen, a fourth-grade teacher at Highland Park Elementary in Salt Lake City, was one of the teachers who attended both the workshop and the play.

Concepts taught in the workshop included puppetry and using voices to show feelings and emotions of the characters. Seeing the play helped cement some of these concepts for Lingen.

"(The students) get experience in seeing a show and (having) actual art pieces here in the city," he said. "(The play is also) providing training for me so I can take that back and use that with my students."

Following "Willy Wonka," Lingen had his students write a journal entry about their experience.

"They were really excited. They really enjoyed it," he said. "They had some good comments and said things like 'it was fun' or 'it was different from the movie — they left stuff out' or 'it had really good voices' or they liked the dancing."

Putting arts education back into the curriculum is something Highland Park Elementary emphasizes, Lingen said.

"I think there's a lot of focus placed on the other subjects," he said. "The nice thing about arts is that it's easily integrated into other subjects. It's a focus at our school to implement or integrate arts into other subjects. ... We do a lot of integration. It's worth it for the kids to have that experience."

Other activities involved with the Imagination Celebration this year will include evening family art workshops at the schools, the 21st Century Play Festival, the children's opera showcase and a Polynesian Dance Festival.

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E-mail: twalquist@desnews.com