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Main IDEA Winter 2020 Newsletter

2020 News

Celebrating 10 Years!

This August 2020 will mark Main IDEA’s 10th Anniversary of our Summer Art Program! We are so excited to celebrate with everyone who has played a role in bringing our organization this far, facilitating free arts programs for thousands of youth in Worcester for the past ten years! Stay tuned for more news on how you can be involved in our BIGGEST year yet!

After School Arts Programs Expansion

Your support has allowed us to significantly expand our after school programming in 2020! With the support from Clark University student volunteers, Main IDEA currently offers FIVE after school arts programs on-site at schools in Worcester! These programs include Woodland and Claremont Academy (in partnership with 21st Century Schools), University Park Campus School and Nativity School of Worcester (as funded by the Worcester Arts Council), and Canterbury Street School (in partnership with Division of Youth Opportunities). These programs include weekly workshops in visual art, dance, music, drama, and creative writing workshops for over 100 youth ages 6-17!

Monthly Teen Open Mic & Art Nights

We are excited to continue hosting our Teen Open Mic & Art Night event series this year at the Worcester PopUp/JMAC! These events are open to all teens/tweens ages 10-17, occur the last Tuesday of the month (Jan-Apr), and is FREE of cost to participants! Youth attending create visual art, perform music, and enjoy complimentary pizza!

Disclaimer: The Worcester PopUp at the JMAC is a creative co-working space of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and in partnership with The Barr Foundation. This event does not necessarily reflect the views of either organization. #makearteverywhere, #worcesterculturalcoalition, #PopUpJmac, #jmacworcester

2019 Milestones

9th Annual Summer Arts Program
We celebrated our 9th Annual Full-Day Summer Arts Program at Clark University, offering free arts programming to Worcester youth ages 8-12! This program hosted full day workshops of visual art, dance, and drama, music, and creative writing to 50 youth and 17 Teen Leaders, including transportation and lunch provision—all free of cost to participants!Summer Program Expansion
In addition to our Annual, Full-Day Summer Arts Program, we also launched an additional 4-week Teen Arts Program, offering arts classes as part of 21st Century Schools! This program hosted workshops of visual art, dance, drama, music, and creative writing to over 30 Main South teens!Teen Arts Programs
We are excited to continue hosting our 2nd Annual, weekly Teen Arts Program this school year (2019-2020)! This program is located at University Park Campus School and offers weekly arts classes to Worcester teens ages 13-17, including dance, visual art, music, drama, and creative writing—all free of cost to participants!In addition to our Teen Arts Program at University Park Campus School, we launched an additional Teen Arts Program at Claremont University this past Fall, as part of 21st Century Schools’ After School Program! This program hosts workshops of visual art, dance, drama, music, and creative writing to over 30 students from Claremont & Woodland Academy. Woodland After School Arts Program In January 2019, we launched a weekly, After School Drama Program at Woodland Academy! This program was hosted with university students from the “Main IDEA at Clark U” Club, and offered improv-based drama classes to Woodland Academy students grades 1 – 3, free of cost to participants! We launched this program again in Oct 2020, alongside our Claremont Program as part of the 21st Century Schools’ After School Art Program!

2019 Special Events

We participated in and hosted youth arts activities in numerous local events last year, including:

Neighborhood Events
- Main South Youth Concerts
- Main South TDI PopUp Plaza
- Main South Halloween Party
- Main South Block Party
- Woodland Academy MultiCultural Gala
City Events
- New England VegFest
- Worcester Day of Play
- Make Music Worcester
- Sofar Sounds: Youth Concert
- Canal District Music Series: Youth Concert
- Youth Open Mic & Art Nights at the JMAC
Collaborations
- Creative Hub Worcester: Summer Drama Workshop
- Boys & Girls Club of Worcester: April Vacation Arts Workshop

Teens Rock Worcester

Last year, Main IDEA hosted their 3rd Annual “Teens Rock Worcester” youth concert at The Raven Rock Club! Four local youth bands performed a rock concert for over 100 people, including the Worcester Police Department’s “Arts and Music Police Partnership” (AMPP) Program!

Teen Arts Fellowship

Last year, Main IDEA Awarded 3 Teen Fellows residing in/attending school in Main South, Worcester, dedicated to developing their leadership and honing their artistic skill. These Teen Fellows met weekly with an adult Artist Mentor, completed weekly assignments, and showcased their work at Main IDEA’s monthly public art events.

The Main IDEA Teen Arts Program is supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Easy Ways to Help Main IDEA

Paypal allows you to make DONATIONS to Main IDEA. Click here to visit our website and make a donation today!

AmazonSmile is a free way to help Main IDEA as you shop online. Simply go to AmazonSmile for all of your shopping, choose Render Creative Inc for your charity, and a donation will be made to Main IDEA for every purchase! Click here to sign up for AmazonSmile!