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Southside Fine Arts Academy offers fun, education and opportunity
Organization offers fun, education and opportunity
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTOWN
Maybe it’s a match made in heaven by divine intervention.
Kris Harper, director of the Mahoning Valley Chorale, which is sponsoring the Southside Fine Arts Academy, sought a site on the South Side for the fledging organization. Nothing panned out.
By happenstance, Harper bumped into Brian Palumbo, director of Top Hat Productions, based at Fairview Arts and Outreach Center, 4220 Youngstown-Poland Road, who sang for an event at St. Patrick Church, 1420 Oak Hill Ave. Harper is music director at the church.
The two talked, and a partnership resulted. The academy is conducting classes at the center in the Brownlee Woods area.
“We’re a 501(c)(3), all-volunteer staff,” Palumbo said. “Part of our mission is outreach. We’ve always had a heart for the inner city.”
Top Hat Productions’ mission “is to enrich the lives of people it serves by fostering a learning environment and providing instructions necessary for intellectual, spiritual and personal development.” It is a Christian-based organization.
Palumbo said Top Hat has a theater season from the fall to May and offers a six-week summer camp for youths. “The goals of the academy fit with Top Hat’s mission.”
Harper coordinated a summer arts camp this year at St. Patrick, which was a “pilot program” for the academy. It was successful and set the stage for the academy.
Free to students from kindergarten through 12th grade, the academy is open from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and will have sessions some Saturdays in November.
Funding comes from grants and private donations and foundations. Harper explained the MV Chorale, a nonprofit organization, is the sponsor and agent for the academy. He is the executive and artistic director.
Harper said students are welcome from Greater Youngstown. He added that youths from Neighborhood Ministries will participate.
“We want to provide a positive environment where kids can have fun and learn something,” he said. He said many children face violence, drugs, alcohol and difficult home situations. Harper said he hopes what students learn at the academy “will transform their lives” and open up
a positive outlet and reveal opportunities in the performing arts.
He emphasized the academy is open to all students, and he sees the performing arts as a vehicle “to unite people of all cultural and diverse backgrounds” that will “know no boundaries or borders.”
The academy offers nurturing and education in fine arts that include dance, singing, visual arts, acting, creative writing and drum circles. Harper recruited instructors from a wide circle of Valley residents. Some are Youngstown State University students who are nearing graduation. Instructors receive a stipend. “I hope it shows kids that there are many opportunities in creative arts and you can make a living,” he said.
Sister Joanne Gardner of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary teaches creative writing and poetry. “This is a means to recognize talent and nurture it,” she said.
Mary Ann Ebert, who is teaching dance, said, “The kids are wonderful and eager.”
Andrea Moore of Poland registered her children, Gordon, 8, and Monica, 6. “It’s a great opportunity. The public schools have cut these areas,” she said. “This is a good experience that I think they will enjoy.”
She added, “It’s a good confidence booster.”
Harper said he recently met with Children’s Hunger Alliance. Through that organization, the academy hopes to provide a hot meal; a start date hasn’t been determined.