Friends of the Arts is committed to increasing opportunities in our community for all citizens to enjoy dance, music, art, and theater.

The generosity of our members enables us to:

• sponsor an outreach program that brings school children to the college for gallery exhibits, and open rehearsals
• take cultural arts events into local schools, and provide theatre and music programs at the Pines Retirement Community
• sponsor local arts organizations, such as the Town of Davidson's April is for Arts, and the Davidson Community Players

2011-2012 Outreach Event Highlights!

We HeART LEARN Works at the Ada Jenkins Center - January 18 - Febuary 22

Each week Davidson student art organizations volunteer their time at the Ada Jenkins Center. These groups work with the LEARN Works afterschool program. They perform, teach and get to know the 60 plus kids in the program.

• 1/18 Swing and Salsa Club
• 1/25 The Madrigal Singers
• 2/3 VAC Gallery Tour
• 2/8 FreeWord
• 2/15 Dance Team
• 2/22 Shades of Brown Step Team

Past Outreach Events:

• A performance with Thodos Dance Chicago for local school children in the Duke Family Performance Hall 

• Ragtime pianist Ethan Uslan at Davidson Elementary School
• A performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet for local high school and middle school students
• A performance flamenco dance ensemble Calo Flamenco for local school children
• African storyteller and musician Obakunle Akinlana at local elementary schools
• Singer Billy Jonas at local elementary schools
• Jazz Singer Nnenna Freelon at Davidson Elementary School

Friends of the Arts also collaborates with other Charlotte arts presenters to bring performers for outreach opportunities at Davidson College.

2009-2010 collaborations:

• A Davidson College Friends of the Arts special event on April 15 featuring the highly acclaimed musical Jersey Boys, with the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
• New South for the New Southerner, with the Levine Museum of the New South, and Our Town Cinemas of Davidson, with movie and arts critic Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer.
• New South for the New Southerner, with the Levine Museum of the New South, and Creative Loafing's food writer Tricia Childress of Johnson & Wales.

Previous collaborations:

•  New South for the New Southerner, with the Levine Museum of the New South and speaker Peter Reinhart, guest chef on WFAE's "Charlotte Talks"
• Herb Jackson's exhibition Veronica's Veils - A Retrospective Friends of the Arts reception, with the McColl Center for Visual Arts
• Mexico: Land of Dances, with the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center 
• Side-by-side performances, with the Charlotte Symphony and Davidson College Symphony Orchestra
• Artist Robert Lazzarini, with The Mint Museum of Art
• Davidson Community night reception for the exhibition Raphael to Monet: European Masterpieces, with The Mint Museum of Art

For more information on outreach opportunities with Friends of the Arts, please contact Sherry Malushizky,  Director, at 704-894- 2101 or shmalushizky@davidson.edu.