COMMUNITY EDUCATION REACHES OUT TO OLD, NEW

The Meadows School of the Arts reaches the community through many avenues: concerts, gallery showings, dance performances, etc. But the Meadows School of the Arts has taken it a step further through a program designed to welcome members of the community into Meadows as active participants.

Started in 1997, the Community Education Program comprises a series of classes for students with or without SMU affiliation, from pre-college students at area schools to retirees. The classes range from basic computer classes (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.) to more traditional art-based classes (art history, dance, ceramics, etc.) There even is a class for children up to five years old called “Music Together,” a “music and movement approach to early childhood music development for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten children, and their parents, teachers and primary caregivers.”

“The program is beneficial in that it creates a connection between SMU and the community,” said Suzanne Kelley Clark, who has taught a number of classes, including Beginning Oil Painting, Outdoor Painting and Watercolor, as well as “a week-long intense painting class at SMU’s campus in Taos, N.M. “It creates awareness, appreciation and a desire to participate in the activities offered on campus.”

Director Jan Crossland said that about 98 percent of the Community Education classes are taught by SMU alumni, faculty and staff.

“Meadows has so much to offer the community,” Crossland said. “Through this program, we’re able to reach out to a wide array of people, to help them expand and develop their artistic interests. The fact that so many of our classes are taught by faculty and alumni underscores the widespread desire we have to share with people all that Meadows has to offer.

“We have great teachers for these classes. Not only are they very knowledgeable, they also are very interested in sharing what they know. They do this because they love their subjects and are eager to share it with the community.”

Jack and Jole Luehrs took their first Community Education class – Art and Culture in the Italian Renaissance – in the fall of 2002, in preparation for a trip to Italy.

“The SMU Community Education program may be one of Dallas’ best-kept secrets,” Jack Luehrs said. “For roughly the cost of a movie ticket per class, one can take advantage of the finest instruction available anywhere.”

Jack Luehrs said that he and his wife feel fortunate to have taken the Community Education classes, and will continue to do so.

“Both my wife and I are retired, so it is easy for us to participate in the CE program – we schedule our activities around it,” he said. “My wife and I feel deeply indebted to SMU for the opportunity to study under such gifted teachers. And it is a great antidote to incipient curmudgeondom to be among young people.”

One of the main areas in which young people become involved at Meadows is through the Community Education-driven Rosenberg Performing Arts Youth Summer Workshop, a two-week, intensive (all-day) outreach program designed to provide education, experience and encouragement to the very talented young people in middle schools and high schools around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex who otherwise would not have the funds to take part in such a program (full scholarships are awarded based on student auditions – last year, the entire class received scholarships). In the visual arts workshop, students study art history, drawing and painting; in the performing arts workshop, students study acting, movement, singing and dance.

“I really enjoy these classes, because they connect SMU to the larger community of which it is a part and the people who take them are fabulous,” said Janis Bergman-Carton, an associate professor of art history at SMU who has taught an array of Community Education courses, including a class about 18th-century women artists in France and their ties to the court of Marie Antoinette and a course about the impact of Spain on the work of Edouard Manet in relation to a Zurbaran exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum (in Fort Worth).

“They are of all ages, a range of life and work experiences, and what they have in common is a love of learning. It is a privilege to welcome them back into the university classroom.”

For more information about the Community Education program, call Chad Crump at 214.768.3343, or log on to http://communityed.smu.edu .