Jack Straw Foundation Programs
Jack Straw Artist Residency Programs provide artists with opportunities to create and present new work. Artists range in age from youth to seniors, come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, are creatively diverse, and range from emerging to established in their fields. Artists are provided with training, professional audio facilities and expert audio staff, as well as a variety of opportunities to present their work to the public through exhibits, talks, performances, radio, and podcasts.
Jack Straw Education Programs provide youth and adults with training and opportunities to tell their stories using audio technology. Programs include curriculum-based school projects in schools and out of school workshops. Teams of artists give students exposure to and understanding of several artistic disciplines, while students learn hands-on about the different artistic roles in an audio production. Special attention is paid to youth with disabilities and English Language Learners.
Jack Straw Community Programs assist arts, heritage, and other community individuals and organizations to preserve, document, and present their cultural traditions and to develop interpretative materials through oral history training, production, and presentation (e.g. audio guides, websites, public presentations, podcasts). Jack Straw’s professional audio facility, equipment, and staff are able to meet the needs of diverse communities to create, preserve, and present their work.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
For over 13 years, Jack Straw Productions, AVIA, and the Department of Services for the Blind have taught blind and visually impaired students radio theater, creative sound, and music recording. This year, we expanded our program to include youth with muscular dystrophy and youth with critical and chronic health needs. Students worked with our artists to write and record their own stories and music, used microphones and recording equipment, created sound effects, conducted interviews, and told stories with sound.
We would be very grateful for general operating support, program support for our arts or education programs, and/or support for our professional audio facility. This year, we received reduced funding for our education programs at the same time that we have received requests from several new schools. We would very much like to be able to continue to provide our programs for English Language Learners, our programs for youth with disabilities, and our oral history and creative audio literary programs.