Community Spark

For some schools, arts education wouldn't be half of what it is without community partnerships.

One of the Charleston area's leading arts collaborators is the Creative Spark Center for the Arts. Based in Mount Pleasant, the "entrepreneurial nonprofit" is fully intertwined with local public and charter schools, providing opportunities for children to enjoy performances and arts-infused literacy projects inside and outside the school building.

Carol Antman, who started the education enterprise in 1992, and who is retiring at the end of the month, said Creative Spark is the largest block booking organization in the state for children and family shows. It's also one of the Lowcountry's main arts education facilities, offering private music lessons, arts and crafts classes, public performances and more.

Antman, whose duties will be assumed by trained staff, said she is constantly fielding calls from schoolteachers and administrators (and others, such as resort managers or party organizers) for off-site programming and performances.

"I never say no, even if I don't quite know where to get the performers," she said.

In fact, she usually does know whom to call.

Over the years, Antman and her staff have identified an array of professional performers, many familiar with Creative Spark's operation, who commit to visit each school year.

Some of the performers are local -- the Plantation Singers, for example -- but many travel from around the world to entertain and teach students in the tri-county region about the value of the arts and the ways in which the arts can aid learning.

Creative Spark assembles a menu of options from which the schools can choose, Antman said. Schools, in turn, benefit from curriculum enhancements and pay significantly less than they would if they booked the acts themselves.

Symbiosis

Since its start, Creative Spark has established itself as the go-to organization for schools looking for supplemental arts programming (especially performances).

James Braunreuther, fine arts learning specialist for the Charleston County School District, said the public school system has worked with Creative Spark since the late 1990s, enabling teachers to expose their students to symphony and ballet concerts as well as a slew of specialized performances.

"Carol Antman is probably one of most astute business people I've ever met," Braunreuther said. She relies on grants and earned income to fund her operation and ensures that the cost to the schools is affordable, he said.

This is especially helpful during a time of belt-tightening, he said. The school district endured a 15 percent across-the-board cut last year and expects the upcoming school year to be affected by additional cuts.

"The more we get cut, the more we turn to (organizations) like Creative Spark and the South Carolina Arts Commission," Braunreuther said.

The arts commission, too, has had to cope with several budget cuts -- 31 percent since the beginning of 2009 -- and as a result has less to award school districts. The majority of the commission's funds go to professional organizations, not schools, he said.

Combining certified arts teachers who possess expertise in student behavior and comprehensive learning curricula with imported performers who can showcase their craft makes for a symbiotic relationship, Braunreuther said.

"When you bring these two entities together, you have the best of both worlds."

Collaboration

Creative Spark is a key element of the arts programming at Sanders-Clyde Elementary School, which adopted an arts-infused curriculum this year and whose students and staff now occupy a new building at 805 Morrison Drive. A $30,000 grant from the Ackerman Foundation has funded a three-year arts program administered by Creative Spark.

The organization also is working with the Charleston Development Academy Public Charter School, Jennie Moore Elementary School, Charleston Charter School for Math and Science, Trident Academy, Sangaree Intermediate School and several others. At Mitchell Elementary School, Creative Spark has piloted a project funded by VSA Arts of South Carolina that uses drumming to teach special needs children.

Inger Brown, outreach coordinator (and as of May 1, outreach director) for Creative Spark, said her organization works in about 20 area schools and maintains long-term arrangements with half of them.

Mostly, she said, schools select programming from the annual list, but sometimes she gets special requests she strives to fulfill. The two most popular acts are the Chinese acrobats and singer-percussionist Billy Jonas.

Cecelia Rogers, principal of Charleston Development Academy, said her school depends on the contributions and generosity of its partner.

"Without Creative Spark, I'm just not sure we could provide continuing quality programs," she said.

The school pays little or nothing to the nonprofit; grant money covers Creative Spark's expenses, and transportation costs to get students to the performance space on Long Point Road are funded by a community block grant, Rogers said.

The block grant also helps pay for an arts literacy project designed to stimulate interest in reading among pre-K children by incorporating ancillary arts-related lessons, she said.

Emily Phillips, fine arts coordinator for the arts-infused Charleston Development Academy, said the literacy program also encourages parents to employ creative learning tools at home.

Once each week, over four weeks, a Creative Spark-sponsored artist visits the school. Phillips said the interaction with performers "broadens exposure" and enables students to better contextualize what they are learning in the classroom.

"It just gets the wheels turning and makes everything relatable," she said.

Karen Felder, principal of Jennie Moore and new board member of Creative Spark, said she looks forward each year to selecting from the list of artists. Third-graders enjoy a weeklong artist-in-residence each year, and all students attend about three assemblies dedicated to special performances, she said.

The supplemental arts programming cost Jennie Moore about $3,500 this year, money raised by the PTA, Felder said.

Last week, Creative Spark sent Robin Stevens to the school for a presentation called "Science, Laugh and Learn," which featured optical illusions and chemical and light demonstrations, all rooted in science lessons the students study in class.

Good neighbor

Antman said her organization has managed to do well even through economic recession. Part of the reason is that it relies on earned income for 82 percent of its $660,000 annual budget. The organization marks up its educational programming by about 20 percent and raises nearly $70,000 in grant money each year, she said.

Creative Spark also makes sure it finds collaborators who appreciate the value of arts programming.

"We're raising all the money," she said. "I'm going to find the school I want to give it to."

The organization doesn't only target schoolchildren; it has a long-standing relationship with the Snowden community, an unincorporated neighborhood situated behind Creative Spark. Staff members go door to door recruiting children for classes in the nearby building, providing full scholarships to anyone from the neighborhood who needs them, Antman said. "We want to be good neighbors."

But she is most proud of the fertile relationships the nonprofit has built with local schools ever struggling to pay for arts education.

"Collaboration is the answer to funding cuts," Antman said.

And the goal is to enrich school offerings and assist schoolteachers, not displace them, she added.

"It's a way to bring things to the school that are otherwise unaffordable."

Reach Adam Parker at 937-5902 or aparker@postandcourier.com.