As we've been adjusting to life without Natasha and re-orienting Cesar with the program, we've been kept pretty busy. Even through all the crazy, we still have some pretty awesome moments. For example, we had an epic dance party this week! We always dance after the lunch break to get us all moving again, and on this particular day, I kept the music playing as people were transitioning to whatever room or project they were working on. Well, Ann decided she was going to keep dancing until the music stopped, so we just kept the music going. Before we knew it, Ann, Chris, Cesar, and Emily Jane had spent the whole hour dancing! Then, as others got out of their classes/projects, they joined in on the dancing as well! It was a great time, and we've got pics to prove that this awesome event happened! In summary, we're awesomely fun :)
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After over four years of incredible contribution, Natasha has left us. We are sad to see her go, but are excited for all the amazing things she will do in the future! Natasha has opened so many doors and found so many opportunities for us as a program, and we truly would not be where we are today without her. Our film program will be taking a bit of a hiatus until one of the rest of us figures out how to do EVERYTHING she did to make that happen, but she did leave us with one last film from her class that we will be screening at our gallery stroll on the 17th. All of us truly appreciate the hard work that Natasha put in to make films, art submissions, and incredible art and dance projects happen. Thank you for everything Natasha- we'll miss you!!! On the positive side of things, we have already found a new program assistant, and it's a familiar face! Cesar is coming back! Natasha is leaving a huge void in her place, but we're glad to be adding Cesar to our program family again, to help fill that void. Welcome back, Cesar!
Ok, so some of you may know, and some of you may not, but TCCA has a new gallery space! TURN has leased a suite at the same address, just on the other side of the building. So, in addition to having our usual space, we now have a beautiful new place to show all of our artwork! We've been working to get it ready for a month or so, but it is now ready to be seen- we'll be having December's Gallery Stroll over there! I've been hanging the artwork over there, and everything is looking amazing! This month our gallery will feature artwork done by our amazing staff and instructors! We'll also be showing some group pieces done by our wonderful artists, and you definitely won't want to miss this show! Come check us out! (note that the gallery is in suite 120)
Well we here at TURN hope you all had a Happy Halloween! We all had a grand time yesterday livin' it up- Halloween style! In the morning we did some Halloween Karaoke, and hit most of the classics- Ghostbusters was everyone's favorite. We also had a Halloween improv class going, where people did some character based movement and scenes going, inspired by our costumes! We also did some shadow dancing, which is always a fun time. We rigged up a sheet and pointed our projector at it, and had a fun time making our shadows dance, pretending to be witches and monsters, and avoiding nefarious shadows that were trying to attack us! And it's not a true holiday at CCFA until we have some holiday themed coloring sheets, so we did some coloring while watching Coco. Happy Belated Halloween!
Well, if yesterday is any indication, we need to start a puppetry class! Ages ago, we had some puppets donated to the program. We use them every now and then, but not often. Well, while waiting for the buses yesterday, Nic started doing some impressions, so we grabbed a few of the puppets to hand out, and hilarity ensued! After Nic and Chris had a puppet conversation, Darin and Shane wanted to give it a stab! Once one of us reads up on puppetry a bit, I think we may just do a puppetry class... or maybe just work puppets into our skits classes... If anyone has expertise, we'd love your help, because we have some great folks who I think will be naturals :)
Fall is a busy time full of opportunities to show our artwork off! We had a great time at the Urban Arts Festival this last weekend, and got to show of our wonderful artists' work to so many people! It's always great to get the word out about us, and to introduce our program to people who have no clue we exist! We had some great conversations with community members, and hopefully have made some new connections :) Not to mention, we were able to help get our artists' artwork out there and into peoples' homes! Now that the festival is over, we are forging on to the next venture! We have five artists who will be showing off their artwork at the Cottonwood Heights Art Show, which starts the end of next week! If you want to go support Darin, Katie F, Tyler, Chris, or Robin, you can see their artwork at the Cottonwood Heights City Hall (2277 East Bengal Boulevard) from October 1-30. Well keep you all posted of the other art opportunities that come up for our artists this Fall!
Hey all! So we've got a few exciting things going on this week! First of all, we picked up all our stuff from the State Fair this week, and we have so many award winners! Shane got a 1st place ribbon, Katie F and Monica got 2nd place ribbons, Devan, Chris, and August got 3rd place ribbons, Jonathan E, Linda, and Ryan got 4th place ribbons, Darin, Jon W, and Walter got 5th place ribbons, Katie G got a 7th place ribbon, and Nikki and Jessica D got honorable mention ribbons. So many winners! Everyone was super excited to get their ribbons- check us out! Next exciting thing: this weekend is the Urban Arts Festival, and we have a booth in it! The festival runs from 12pm-10pm on Saturday, and 12pm-8pm on Sunday, and takes place at the Gallivan Plaza. We are booth 29, which is over on the West side of the Gallivan Plaza. And, even more fun than that, Natasha's art booth is going to be right next to ours! Even if you don't find our booth, it's always a really fun event, and it's free to attend! Drop by and say hi if you can, and maybe even pick up some cool items featuring different clients' work!
We had some heartbreaking news this week that has affected us all greatly. Our lovely Monica passed away in her sleep earlier this week. We've been struggling this week because Monica had many, many friends here at the program. Amidst the sadness, we've been able to strengthen our friendships with each other as we've been helping each other get through this hard time. We've also had a great time telling fun stories about Monica and looking through old pictures. Here are a few of the gems I found: We'll miss you Monica!
So Friday was an exciting day for two of our participants. Both Earl and Darin had their black belt tests on Friday.... and now we have four black belt students at our program! Earl was a little nervous before the test, and wasn't sure he would pass his test. But, he's been working hard and practicing, and he made it through! Darin was a bit more confident going into the test, and was more excited than anything else. All day leading up to the test, he kept reviewing with staff about the tenets of Hapkido so that he would be prepared in class when he had to explain each of them. We're very proud of our new black belts- congratulations you guys!!!
So although Jimmy stopped working here awhile ago, he's been generously donating his time and volunteering to teach one of his classes each week since then. Well, the time has come for him to actually move to Missouri, so last week was our last time seeing him before the move! In Philip's music class, they had been working on writing a song, and it just happened to be a goodbye song for Jimmy! Everyone from the class was able to sing the song for Jimmy before he left, and it was fantastic- and our gift of song was appreciated :) After the goodbye song had been sung, several of the clients wanted a picture with Jimmy, and we got some good ones! Goodbye Jimmy, and good luck in Missouri! We'll miss you!
Also, last week was our art show reception at Art Access! The show looks so great over there, and the people at Art Access did a great job of hanging it. Also, just in the first night of the show, 3 pieces sold! If you want to see the show, it will be up until July 12th, so go check it out- they are open Tuesday-Friday 11-4, and their address is 230 S 500 W. Last bit of exciting news- we just found out that we were accepted into the Urban Arts Festival again! So mark your calendars for September 21-22 this year, and come visit us in our booth! |
TURN City Center for the Arts
Helping adults with disabilities to enrich their lives through the arts! Archives
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