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Erin Thomas-Foley, SPARC's senior director of education and creator and director of the "Live Art" program, rehearses for the Special Olympics concert with Danaja Jackson of Southside Occupational Academy. (Photo by Ryan Ripperton)
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SPARC faculty member Abernathy Bland (left) and Mallory Marvin from Special Olympics Illinois Global Messengers attend a rehearsal for the "Live Art" performance at the Special Olympics 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert. (Photo by Ryan Ripperton)
When Jason Mraz takes the stage at the Special Olympics’ 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert at Chicago’s Huntington Pavilion on Saturday evening, he’ll be joined by performers and instructors from SPARC’s “Live Art” program in Richmond.
Natalie Schwartz and Ajay Reddy, two students who’ve been involved since the first “Live Art” event in 2012, traveled to Chicago along with other representatives from the School of Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC): Executive Director Ryan Ripperton, Senior Director of Education Erin Thomas-Foley, faculty members Abernathy Bland, Brendan Kennedy, Paul Major and Courtney Vollmer.
The SPARC team has been working with three Chicago-based groups -- After School Matters, Southside Occupational Academy and Special Olympics Illinois Global Messengers -- on a “Live Art”-style performance that brings typically developing students and those with disabilities together in an effort to build relationships and understanding. The group will perform several songs with Mraz including "Have It All." (Mraz, a SPARC alumnus and staunch supporter of "Live Art," filmed a video for the song in Richmond.)
“This is all toward being able to replicate the ‘Live Art’ model in other cities, because we get asked about that all the time,” says Sara Marsden, SPARC’s director of marketing. In 2017, a SPARC group also traveled to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria to lead a similar performance.
Led by a team from SPARC, participants in a "Live Art"-style performance rehearse for the Special Olympics 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert. (Photo by Ryan Ripperton)
Also appearing in Saturday’s concert wrapping up the Special Olympics events will be Chance the Rapper, Usher, Francis & The Lights, Daya, Smokey Robinson and O.A.R. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern). Check SPARC’s Facebook page for information on livestreaming of the event.
Tonight, meanwhile, more than 225 landmarks around the world will honor the Special Olympics anniversary by lighting up in red. Among those are the Empire State Building in New York City; the Picadilly sign in London; Krymsky Bridge in Moscow; the Sydney Opera House in Australia; the National Aquatics Center in Beijing; the Presidential Palace in Panama; Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg, South Africa; the Citadel in Cairo, Egypt; and Olympic Stadiums in Berlin and Amsterdam and Azerbaijan.