ILLUMINART ILLUMINATES STAY-AT-HOME ARTS
IlluminArt Productions is a long time partner of Historic Richmond Town; which serves as rehearsal and exhibition space for their theatre and Arts Empowerment Project, respectively. The mission of IlluminArt is to empower students of all ages to utilize the arts as a tool to express themselves and illuminate critical social issues, creating conversations for positive change.
They achieve this through three programs: play-writing, musical theater, dance, and visual arts residencies in schools and senior centers; a Touring Company of professional actors who perform interactive plays about critical social issues; and an Arts Empowerment program for young people impacted by a family member’s addiction. Before the stay-at-home order was issues in light of COVID-19, they had 33 residencies in schools and community based organizations. Some of these programs, like Arts Empowerment, have continued remotely.
As COVID-19 continues to present challenges for families across the world, IlluminArt has created two different YouTube channels where audiences can still access amazing content.
For students, there is Imagine with IlluminArt, which consists of video lessons by our Teaching Artists that they would have been doing in classrooms or after-school programs.
For the community, IlluminArt’s Touring Company is creating new short "plays" for their "I Wanna Be" series. Each short play consists of two-person scenes that highlight family conflict situations that are arising because people are staying home during COVID-19.