Arts Give Back

The Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts partnered with Discovery Middle School to give back this holiday season. IU South Bend and Discovery Middle school first connected earlier in the semester during the Piano Series. The Piano Series is a four concert event that is taking place over two semesters at IU South Bend. The concert series will return with its third performance at the end of January, and conclude in March. Each artist that comes to perform must also host a master class, and perform an outreach concert of 50 minutes in length. The first concert in the series that took place in September brought Christopher O’Riley to the IU South Bend campus. He performed at Discovery Middle school
Piano Lab that consisted of about 150 students. After the performance, the students all wrote thank you notes and sent them to Mr. O’Riley for visiting and performing at their school.

This led to a relationship between IU South Bend and Discovery Middle, and brought the piano lab students to campus this past December. For three days, the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders performed holiday duets for an hour in the campus grill during finals week. Students, faculty and staff were invited to enjoy their music during lunch. Many of the student’s families also attended the
performances. The School of the Arts asked the students and their families to bring non-perishable food items with them, which were all donated to the campus food pantry Titans Feeding Titans. This helped create the Arts Give Back event for December.

The campus grill was full each of the three days, and IU South Bend also opened up the dining services to allow the students and their families to eat lunch while visiting campus. The School of the Arts strives for connecting with the local community, and this was an event that did just that. The outreach performance in September played a big role in leading to the December holiday concert. Mr. O’Riley went to Discovery in hopes of inspiring and motivating the young piano lab students. For some students, the holiday concert on campus was their first ever performance. The school of the Arts have also invited the students back to the following Piano Series concerts, by offering free admissions to all students, and one free ticket for an adult that comes with. It was a great opportunity to showcase the many talents of the community, and help bring a cheerful end to another great semester for the School of the Arts at IU
South Bend.

Students from Discovery Middle School with Christopher O’Riley during his visit to the Piano Lab.

Post written by Cory Iwaszewski