Project S.T.A.G.E. Festival

8:45-9:25 AM – Oak Park Elementary – The Jungle Book
9:55-10:25 AM – Cattell Elementary – Pirates: The Musical
10:45-11:15 AM – Moulton Elementary – Lion King Kids
11:50AM-12:20 PM – Findley Elementary – Finding Nemo Kids
12:35-12:50 PM – Madison Elementary – Capoeira and Social Change Songs
1:05-1:25 PM – Harding Middle School – On Your Mark!

Hoyt Sherman Place Foundation, in partnership with the Kennedy Center’s Turnaround Arts Initiative and six Title 1 North Des Moines schools, will present the annual Project S.T.A.G.E. (Students, Teachers, Artists: Generating Excellence) Festival. The Festival includes peer-to-peer performances of Broadway Junior™ musicals. Principal Foundation and Principal Charity Classic’s Birdies For Charity program, funded by Sammons Financial Group, are sponsors for this event.

Turnaround Arts is a national program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The initiative began in 2011 under the President’s Committees on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council. The program is about integrating the arts into all academic disciplines to spur learning and achievement across the board.

Turnaround Arts schools receive an array of arts education services designed to increase their opportunities for success, engage in their communities, and raise the visibility of their achievements. Key to those efforts is arts education programming that is rigorous, effective, and integrated holistically into the school, as well as strategically targeted to address broader school challenges.