ACES Arts and Culture Program
The ACES Arts and Culture Program enters its 5th year this Fall 2020! Our focus is to nurture our creative ACES students who are considering a pathway to visual/media/technological and performing arts instruction, and careers in the arts. Our students have opportunities to meet and develop mentorships with renown artists throughout the Washington metropolitan area at our annual “Careers in the Arts” workshops at Strathmore, as well as have opportunities to meet our Montgomery College faculty members in the thriving Visual, Performing and Media Arts Department. The experiences include personalized tours with professors explaining their specific department’s courses/programs, pre-performance dinners and front row seats to MC performances, as well as mentor- introductions. Our overall goal is to help nurture one’s pathway through MC to consolidate skills for a healthy and robust career in the arts. The program remains committed to providing opportunities for our ACES High School and MC students to attend arts and cultural events at major performing and visual arts organizations in the DC metropolitan area, but only when our country recovers from the pandemic/COVID-19 virus.
Our overall program mission remains clear – to creatively collaborate and nurture – always reconfirming the value, power, and importance of the arts in our culture, especially in 21st century. With the arts, we are given momentum to be empathic individuals, a compassionate community, and an inclusive society.
We welcome you to browse our Year-In-Review highlights, Fall 2019 – Early Spring 2020.
Our program would simply not exist if it were not for the generous spirit of the performing and visual arts organizations who graciously donated complimentary and/or discounted tickets to our program. We invite you to visit them and experience their expertise and community spirit by supporting their many extraordinary offerings! You will not be disappointed!
- Maryland Lyric Opera (MDLO)
- Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
- Montgomery College Visual, Performing and Media Arts Program
- Dance Place
- BlackRock Center for the Arts
- Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA)
- Strathmore Music Center
- The National Philharmonic at Strathmore
- The Montgomery College Arts Institute
- The National Symphony
- National Museum of African American History & Culture
- Library of Congress
- Grateful to Washington Mayor, Muriel Bowser, for commissioning this mural which spans two blocks of 16th Street. The world needs to see these words…
- Truly powerful and brilliant composers — too long neglected. We, as musicians salute them for their exquisite compositions and momentum in the classical world. History proves once again – Black lives matter now, and absolutely always!
- Portuguese dancer Marcelino Sambé is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. A piece of choreography created by Maestro Sambe in memory of George Floyd. “Nobody should have to live in fear because of the colour of their skin #BlackLivesMatter.”
- Concert pianist, Timo Andres, who’s debut performance at Carnegie Hall was abruptly cancelled due to the COVID-19 virus, uses his creativity and tenacious spirit to salvage his Carnegie Hall program by documenting it as a series of videos on the platform. All done by himself. Creativity Beyond!
- Fade to Black – Over 70 shows in the DC region were abruptly halted as the coronavirus put America and ALL it’s performing arts organizations on lockdown in March, 2020. Bravo to Rolando and Kris Sanz, Young Artists of America Founding Music/Artistic directors, YAA for their creativity in keeping their students connected via online rehearsals and “watch” parties. YAA is a grand supporter of our ACES program, donating tickets to their performances for the past 4 years.
- A great resource to find visual, writing, children/educational and performing arts options online. SO grateful to WETA for providing these really exciting options during our isolation. Creativity must go beyond any challenge. Join us…the arts truly DO empower us! Special BRAVA to Director of Education at Strathmore, and true supporter of our ACES Arts & Culture program. A really brilliant and inviting interview with Robert Aubrey Davis!
- What are your thoughts on the arts after COVID. What are the tasks of the artists…in and post COVID*. . Who and what will survive? The global impact? TBA!
- The art and creativity of photography. Enjoy the 2019 Smithsonian Magazine photo winners…and perhaps submit for 2020!?!
- Ailey All Access! While, for now, you can’t enjoy Ailey dancers performing in a theater – you can still marvel at the beauty and virtuosity of the Alvin Ailey Company’s performances via your computer screen!
- Now, you get to “go to the museum” and never have to leave your couch. Enjoy Google Arts & Culture’s collection – including the British Museum in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the Guggenheim in New York City! Museums are collections to reflect art, history, and science – especially treasured by the curious!
- How a dream of “belonging” helped create a thriving cultural center! Wa Na Wari is an art house and a community organizing effort, a testimony to how black homeowners can stay in their homes while also convening around black art. Cultural activism creates a home – a community center to celebrate.
- How a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering is a true champion of the new media arts involving emerging technology, and musical composition and performance.