 Fifteen young children sat onstage, eager to learn more about homemade musical instruments during a recent Arty Party. The instructor began by asking, “If you were stuck in the desert with no instruments, and you wanted to hear music, what would you do?.”
A five-year-old blurted, “Buy one!”
“Turn on the radio,” said another.
One youngster suggested tapping on a cactus (ouch!).
Then the face of a three- year-old lit up as she began to rhythmically stomp her feet on the stage. And thus began the exploration of making music. It all starts with imagination.
My own childhood was filled with music, both in school and at home. Every elementary classroom had a piano in it, and we sang and did art projects almost daily. We also learned to folk dance with each other and were encouraged to come to school a half hour early for music lessons if we wanted them. These artistic pursuits were fun and introduced our young minds to the concept that beauty, grace, and harmony are part of everyday life. I sound like a fuddy-duddy, but I know that it was these experiences that trained my ear for music and my body for good posture and expressiveness. Frequent trips to museums, zoos, art galleries, theatres, and bigger cities also fed my imagination and enriched my understanding of the world around me.
Times have changed, but the needs of human beings have not. We all still want to know and experience our world, pursue happiness, and express ourselves. Arts YOUniverse picks up the slack. Professional artists of every kind rent space here and sustain themselves by teaching classes and selling their art. My job is to bring groups in to enjoy affordable workshops of dance, art, fencing, drama, and the exploration of homemade musical instruments.
During the six years we’ve been in business, people from daycares, scout troops, schools, and social clubs have visited us, as well as veterans and tourists. They’ve sung, danced, played spoons, walked on stilts, and made arts, books, puppets, and poetry. They’ve played acoustic, nose, and air guitar; violin; piano; flute; rain stick; bongos; and kazoo.
They’ve used their imaginations trying to find yet another unique idea in drama class for “this is a…” when presented with a toothpick. (It’s been a pencil, a cigar, a fencer’s foil, an oar for a very small rowboat, a flagpole in Lilliput land, a unicorn horn, and more.)
Throughout it all, children and adults alike have enjoyed the feeling that comes from making a decision about a material or color, word, movement, or sound that ends up expressing something about them that is different from everyone else. At Arts YOUniverse, participants also learn to appreciate their differences as well as their similarities, to love their own uniqueness and celebrate that quality in others, and how to “play nice” together. Most of all, it just feels good to create. And when you feel good, life is better.
That’s the short answer to, “What is Arts YOUniverse and why should I care?.” You should care because the state and national budgets supporting the arts have all but disappeared. Arts YOUniverse anticipated that turn of events, so it was formed as a for-profit partnership, banking on the fact that if it provided a needed service that was fun and inexpensive, then people would spend a few of their disposable dollars to participate.
We quickly outgrew our first home in the Mary Stegmaier Mansion on South Franklin Street and are now bursting at the seams in a former church across from the grand old Irem Temple, on North Franklin Street.
The Wyoming Valley has welcomed Arts YOUniverse with open arms, and we are grateful for that. Our artists have been invited to present programming in conjunction with many local organizations looking for cost-effective ways to improve the quality of life: The Children’s Service Center, Wyoming Valley Children’s Association, the Veteran’s Administration, Leadership Wilkes-Barre, the Duetsche Institute, and NEPA Philharmonic, to name just a few.
In fact, we’ve recently collaborated with the Cultural Council of Wyoming Valley to create Arts SEEN Gallery on Public Square, representing more than 50 local artists. We welcome every opportunity to remind people of all ages and intellectual abilities that imagination is the stuff of life and we encourage you to use yours every day. Start now. When you finish reading this article, close your eyes and think about the toothpick. What else could it be?
Find us at 47 North Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre; 570-970-ARTS (2787); and www.artsyouniverse.com.
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