AiS Grantee Highlight: El Sistema Colorado
RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. This collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare.
We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.
We’re excited continue this series with the 2022 AiS Grantee: The Artists in Mentorship Project with El Sistema Colorado!
Tell us about El Sistema Colorado
El Sistema Colorado (ESC) is an organization where social justice and music education intersect to celebrate a vibrant community of young people who bring diversity to the world of classical music.
The El Sistema philosophy of “music as a vehicle for social change” was born out of Venezuela in 1975, where the first program was created in response to a rise in violence amongst youth and the need for children to access music education.
ESC was founded in Denver ten years ago and has served over 1,500 youth across the great Denver region.
All children, ages 3-18, are welcome to participate in our programs which include free after-school education, free summer music programming, free early childhood music education, free private lessons and free string instruments.
Our orchestral music program is the only one of its kind in the state of Colorado where students may access music at completely no-cost.
ESC prioritizes enrollment for low-income students and students of color where the barriers to access music education are much greater. Once a student is enrolled, they may spend their entire childhood with ESC.
We have designed a pathway for students to follow an intensive and excellent music education program starting in preschool and continuing throughout after school all the way until they graduate high school.
The mission of ESC is at-work daily in the healthy learning environments created by our staff and teachers to support the individual identities of our students. Our vision is not just to create excellent musicians, but to create excellent members of the world.
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Learning an instrument provides opportunities for growth within an individual no matter what their age. Musical skills and social-emotional skills coincide as students develop their voice within the orchestra.
Students learn how to become more active listeners and take responsibility for their own growth to benefit the ensemble as a whole. The end result is a community of musicians growing together to make something beautiful.
Tell us about your first project that will utilize your AiS grant: The Artists in Mentorship Project.
The Artists in Mentorship Project funded by Arts in Society was created for the students of El Sistema Colorado to experience hands-on training from professional musicians of color in the classical music landscape in Colorado.
The members of Ivalas Quartet along with Maestro Taylor Gonzales were our participating mentors who worked closely with students to develop growth both musically and socio-emotionally.
During rehearsals, our mentors would often ask questions like, “how does this piece or section of music make you feel?” Discussions like these led students to decipher their own identity within music and connect the art to skill.
Maestro Taylor Gonzales and The Ivalas Quartet met monthly with ESC’s most advanced students. During these monthly workshops, student quartets would rehearse for their mentors and receive real-time feedback on everything from technique, instrument position, emotional awareness and performance tips.
Throughout their mentorship experience, students had several performance opportunities where there was a visible improvement in their confidence and ability to work together.
One of our favorite stories to share about the self-confidence developed from the Mentorship Project includes Mycelium Quartet; a student-led quartet mentored by Ivalas.
The four high school quartet students represented ESC at an intimate outdoor concert this past summer. It was their first time playing for a private audience so they were both nervous and excited.
While they were playing, a gust of wind blew the music from their stands but they did not stop and continued to play with smiles on their faces.
In that moment, we witnessed qualities and characteristics of maturity, determination and grace in four timid teenagers who impressed the audience with their capacity to overcome unforeseen challenges with courage.
These traits undoubtedly came from the hours spent with their mentors who prepared them for real-life scenarios.
What's next in the pipeline for El Sistema? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your AiS grant help to support these efforts?
Continuing our commitment to culturally responsive music education, ESC has garnered the interest and support of several influential artists and groups in Denver and beyond.
Our Winter Concert (which takes place on December 13) will include a performance with the all-female Mariachi group Las Dalias.
Next semester, ESC will partner with The Colorado Mambo Orchestra to work regularly with students to bring Latin culture and music to the forefront of our program.
As we look forward to the Spring, we can expect several key performance opportunities for our students with The Colorado Symphony that will bring our young musicians to Boettcher Hall!
What was your experience like when applying for an AiS? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply for an AiS grant?
We love the approach that AiS takes in creating and prioritizing funding opportunities that are collaborative in nature.
Encouraging artists and art organizations to work together creates incredible scenarios for growth that are unique to cross-sector collaborative working environments.
The granting experience through AIS encouraged us to think outside the box and reach out to potential partners that we may not otherwise be able to consider.
This special project grant was a great way to tap into the network and resources of our partners so our advice for anyone looking to apply is: Dream Big!
Meet Another Arts in Society Grantee: The Red Road Project
The Red Road Project began in 2013 by two friends, Danielle SeeWalker and Carlotta Cardana. The project aims to explore and document the Native American narrative and offer the viewer a contemporary and Indigenous representation of the American Indian perspective.
Through The Red Road Project, Native peoples and communities have a platform to utilize their own voices and be seen the way they want to be represented.