Campus & Community Engagement • Winter 2024 Highlights

Clarice Presents offers engagement programs that make a lasting, positive impact on our community and ensure that the arts are accessible to all.

A goal of Clarice Presents’ campus and community engagement activities is to support university student learning so that they excel professionally and become compassionate citizens who know their potential to make positive change. We achieve this by providing students with professional development and learning opportunities that support the university curriculum, in addition to opportunities to volunteer in our community-based projects. This edition of Inside Track features our work with and for UMD students.

School of Music Students Gain Engagement Experience Through Voices of Prince George’s County

Through Clarice Presents’ Voices of Prince George’s County program, several students from the School of Music have been shadowing the Sound Impact team, using music-based community engagement to help refugee families combat isolation that they often face after resettling in the U.S. This work culminated last month when musicians from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra joined the students, Sound Impact and families to play music together and for each other.

Reflecting on their experience, one student volunteer shared, “Getting to see the sheer joy and active engagement that the sharing of culture through music brought to the children in attendance was honestly life changing. Volunteering with Sound Impact during the final semester of my degree has caused me to reconsider my priorities and intended career path, inspiring me to now look towards non-profit work as I prepare for my life post-graduation.”

You can read more about this powerful musical exchange in The Baltimore Sun.

Far From The Norm Inspires UMD Students Through Dance and Dialogue

Members of the UK-based dance company Far From The Norm taught choreography and danced with students in several UMD dance classes during their time at The Clarice. One student remarked that dancing with the artists  “showed the power of being able to engage with dance and see[ing] how important it is for an audience to experience a performance with an attitude that allows for a change in the environment.” One student mentioned that this style of dance “tells the audience that we need to look at the ways our internalized biases and assumptions manifest in all parts of our life.” Far From The Norm’s artistic director Botis Seva also visited an Arts Activism class to discuss how movement and play can inform how we think about ourselves, our communities and our society.

Students Craft Costumes for Children with Only Make Believe

As part of their ongoing partnership, Clarice Presents and Only Make Believe (OMB) hosted a costume-making workshop on December 2 at The Clarice. UMD student volunteers crafted hats, masks and tutus for OMB to give to children in hospitals, special education schools and care facilities. OMB creates interactive theatre for these children, inspiring joy and imagination that is vital to their healing process.

Castalian Quartet Coaches School of Music Students

Critically-acclaimed Castalian String Quartet coached three student quartets in a chamber music class of the School of Music. After the masterclass, a student reflected on how they “liked [the artists’] insight on musical expression, such as where the phrase is going and how to allow that to happen physically with our bodies.” Additionally, Castalian read and recorded new works by School of Music composition students, providing an invaluable contribution to the students’ academic and professional portfolios.

Students Discuss Arts, Activism and Empathy with British-Iranian Artist Javaad Alipoor

Javaad Alipoor, founder of The Javaad Alipoor Company, visited classes in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) and also a class about Arts Activism in Iran, housed in the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies. Javaad spoke about his personal experience as an immigrant from Iran to the UK, and about his commitment to integrating political history into the work he makes. One student in the Art Activism in Iran class stated that the Javaad Alipoor Company performance and mission “would help [students] realize that activism through art isn’t just about protest, it’s about creating moments for reflection, empathy, and conversation.”

TDPS Students Teach Local High Schoolers During Arts Immersion Day

Suitland High School, which has a visual and performing arts magnet, brought 24 9th and 12th grade students on October 25 to The Clarice for hands-on workshops in lighting, costume and sound design. These workshops, requested by the instructor at Suitland, were taught by TDPS Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) students. With most of the high schoolers having a dance background, this was a formative experience to learn the behind-the-scenes roles that bring performances to life. The Arts Immersion Day also made a powerful impact on the M.F.A. students involved. Hannah, who taught lighting design, expressed that the experience “helped to expand my knowledge of what new designers or students might bring into the space and how to shape my own explanations of light and how it functions in a space.”