President Marc Greenberg Imm. Past President Pam Belleman Vice President Sara Griebel Treasurer Robert W. Sauer

DIRECTORS Christie-Jo Carter Adams Brad Armstrong Diane Carnohan Lynn Greer Anne-Marie Irani Susan Craven Johnson Sidney Koerin Shawn Moore Clara Pettus Ann Ramage Matthew Reynolds Lisa Sims Linda Warren Terrence F. Wilson

 

SPARC’s faculty — teaching artists, directors, designers, special educators, and technicians — represents some of the most acclaimed and sought-after professionals in the region. Specializing in a wide range of artistic disciplines, SPARC’s faculty lead programs from early childhood through pre-professional performance, and everything in between.

Highly qualified and experienced in the arts, many of SPARC’s faculty are seen frequently on stages around the region, including at virtually every professional theater in the area.

But just as importantly, every faculty member is chosen because they align with SPARC’s student-centered values, including personal discovery, optimism, real-world preparation, empathy, and resourcefulness. Our faculty are engaged in long-term relationships with our students, helping them to achieve success on stage and in the broader life beyond.

Simply put, SPARC’s faculty make magic happen in the lives of our students.

From its earliest days, SPARC promised that no child would ever be turned away because of inability to afford tuition. This covenant is still honored 36 years later, with more than 150 children (10% of its student population) annually participating in SPARC’s classes assisted by free or reduced-price tuition.

In 2003, SPARC inherited a nationally renowned high school playwriting program from Theatre Virginia, New Voices for the Theater. Each year, over 150 high school students across Virginia submit original one-act plays for adjudication, and the top eight playwrights are invited to Richmond for two weeks in the summer to reside at VCU, hone their craft under the guidance of a professional playwright-in-residence, and ultimately have their plays staged by professional actors and directors in front of a live and enthusiastic audience.

SPARC’s Stages program, a vital outreach program in the community’s elementary schools and neighborhood centers, debuted in 2006. STAGES classes are taught to students in grades 2 through 4 during in-school instructional hours for a full school year, with fun-filled lessons focused on oral language skills (confidence, articulation, vocal projection); program assessments show the average student improves oral language Standards of Learning by more than 44% within a single school year. STAGES serves more than 800 students each year, predominantly in low-income schools.

In 2012, SPARC debuted an innovative pilot program, Live Art, which brought inclusion to the spectrum of performing arts programs offered by SPARC. Following a wildly successful pilot and a feature-length documentary film, LIVE ART has grown into an annual program serving more than 200 students aged 9-21, half with disabilities and half typically developing. Acceptance, compassion and empathy are core values of the program, and the large audiences and innovative reputation of the program have added significantly to SPARC’s community reputation.

SPARC fulfilled one of its most urgent goals in 2009, when it purchased the building at 2106 North Hamilton Street in Richmond. The organization transformed the 14,000-square-foot facility into class studios, a black-box theater and administrative offices. Debt-free ownership was achieved in 2013, and fundraising continued toward a final capital campaign goal of $6.0 million. Final renovations have just been completed to add two additional studio teaching spaces, an elevator, and making the facility fully handicap accessible.