Artpark Bridges

CONNECT EMPOWER CREATE

Artpark Bridges is a year-round community arts engagement program that connects participants with Artpark's legacy of innovation and possibility. 

Experience music, movement, dance, drama or visual art as unique opportunities for creativity, inclusion and healing through the arts. 

Artpark Bridges celebrates and supports all participants in their quest to find vibrant expression and expanded capacity. Interactive workshops are custom-designed to meet each group’s aims and needs. Evidence-based methodologies support meaningful art practices and experiences for people living with disAbilities and people self-identifying as non-disabled. 

We welcome: community groups. human service organizations, people living with progressive diseases, care partners for adults and youth, Neuro-diverse, and Neuro-typical participants 

Led by trained and certified Artpark teaching artists and Artpark artists-in-residence. Artpark Bridges programming is offered at Artpark and at partner sites in Niagara and Erie counties.

Ask about participating in our optional performance projects! 

 

Step 1: Connect 

Community members and service organizations connect with Artpark about how Artpark Bridges can support specialized interests, needs or therapeutic priorities through non-clinical arts interventions. 

WNY has been connecting through Artpark Bridges programs since 2018: People Inc, Artisans’ Edge, Empower WNY, Buffalo Department of Education Adult Ed/ESL Division, St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, the Parkinson’s Community, Veterans Onestop, Operation Children of the Military, Elderwood Senior Care, Exhale Memory Cafe Collective

step 2: empower

Interactive programs empower participants by sparking imaginative thinking and inquisitive interaction with nature, art and humanity. 

ONGOING INIATIVES

Sensing Here & Now is a free respite-with-partners program for people living with changes in memory & thinking capacity and their care partners. This program occurs every third Wednesday of the month. 

Artpark Bridges recognizes the deeply inherent human need for a sense of belonging and dignity, and understands how community and carepartners can shape a sense of mattering for people who may be dismissed or unheard. 

Sensing Here & Now is our unique response to WNY’s need for non-clinical interventions that enhance quality of life for people living with mild to moderate dementia, along with care partners, helpers and friends.

Evidence-based and pleasurable! Monthly gatherings offer opportunities to socialize while experiencing Artpark’s mission to “foster a transformative world of engagement”. As an Artpark Bridges program, participants experience our hallmark approaches to relaxed, sensory-rich activities accessible and restorative for all. 

Each gathering is centered in music, accessible art-making and fun movement games to awaken sensory enjoyment through all our senses.

Attendees can choose to participate or simply observe. It is a valid choice to soak up the energy of the music and other people without actually “doing”. Any place in the spectrum of observing-participating is embraced and respected.

Our Sensing Here & Now motto celebrates “There is only now”, a phrase so famously used by dance innovator George Balanchine. Don’t be surprised if we dub our program UNmemory Café because being able to remember is NOT required! Activities intentionally release memory-based restrictions. This is a “no answers are wrong” program designed to spark felt emotions and enjoyment in the present.

Inspired by the international model of Memory Cafe and other evidence-based methodologies, Artpark is proud to offer Sensing Here & Now, as a founding member of the WNY Exhale Memory Cafe Collective. 

Led by Cynthia Pegado, certified and trained dementia programs facilitator.

 

Sound Dance seeks to facilitate expressivity, while creating an environment of wellness, self-care and respect. Through creative dance and sound-making, participants benefit physically, creatively, socially and emotionally while exploring personal expression and mutual collaboration. 

2020 Bridges project

The solo roths waltz across the red hot colossus lot

A Parking Lot Mural Collaboration of the Artpark Bridges program with People Inc. and Parkinson's Community on 160,000 square feet of asphalt canvas

Completed August 2020

This public art project has transformed Artpark’s lower parking lot (Lot D, South 4th Street entrance) into an expansive canvas of colorful playfulness that expresses universal connections of our shared humanity.

This project was supported by: Charles D. and Mary A. Bauer Foundation, Cornerstone Community Federal Credit Union, Joseph & Pamela Priest, Jeff & Marla Williams

Click here to learn more about the project

 

bridges looking back

In 2018, its inaugural year, the Artpark Bridges program culminated in a special musical theatre production, a modern stage adaptation of "The Odyssey." 

Odyssey Photo by Richard Termine

The Odyssey was a professional theater production which integrated amateur participants in a groundbreaking collaboration.

Actual Broadway stars, Terence Archie and Courtney Balan, traveled from New York City to work with the best of Western New York professional and amateur talent. Months of workshops, rehearsals and artistic collaboration came to a triumphant presentation at Artpark's Mainstage Theater on August 4 and 5, 2018 under the direction of Roger Danforth. Over 200 participants including theatre  professionals, elementary to college students, seniors, amateur performers, local volunteers and community organizations were applauded on the stage by an audience of over 2,000. Supporters graciously donated food, rehearsal space and made monetary contributions.

view the odyssey story, show info, complete cast listing and more

 

bridges testimonials

"Our ESL students benefit from participating in Artpark theater workshops for a variety of reasons. Many of our students come to us having very little previous opportunity to speak English and even fewer opportunities to participate in an artistic endeavor. Engaging students through theater helps them develop public speaking skills, gain confidence, and provides them with team-building opportunities, all of which in turn helps students cultivate a richer understanding of the English language.”
-Jason Guzzetta, M.S. Ed Coordinator, BPS Adult Education Division

 

"I think it's a great opportunity for me, for my future, and to be a successful actor. Performing with other people, and getting to know people too. I was very friendly with everybody, and I liked the whole team who worked together."
- Jon Mercado, People Inc.

 

"The Odyssey project, I really really liked the show, and my favorite part, it was singing. I feel like I am very happy to be on stage with Broadway actors."
- Keller Vogelsang, People Inc.

 

"It was incredible and magnificent because it inspires me to be in the community with other people. The crowd and the fans loved the performance. The best experience of theater, it inspires me to do anything I put my mind to!"
- Peter Vasko, People Inc.

 

 

2019 Strawberry Moon Festival

Artpark’s new Strawberry Moon Festival was held on June 22nd, 2019 and featured performances by A Tribe Called Red, Sam Roberts Band and Alan Doyle. Live music was preceded by indigenous arts, music and food festival.

The Artpark Bridges participants performed together with the Iroquois community, Artpark youth, volunteers and local musicians, all led by an internationally renowned percussionist and community organizer, Cyro Baptista.

 

 

Artpark Bridges Garden

The Artpark Bridges Garden is a painted pyramid sculpture that incorporates different types of percussion instruments with a surrounding garden of greenery and flowers. The Garden was created in a collaborative effort of participants from the Artpark Bridges community engagement program, including People Inc., Empower, artist Brian Nacov and landscape designer Andrew Palinski. 

 

The Artpark Bridges Garden is supported in part by the Charles D. and Mary A. Bauer Foundation, the WGRZ Channel 2 and Tegna Foundation, Teresa Williams, Thomas Donahower. See below for full listing of Artpark Bridges supporters. 

 

Community Choir performance with Foreigner

This summer, Artpark Bridges participants from People Inc. along with students of the Artpark Theatre Academy had the incredible opportunity to perform with rock band Foreigner on the Amphitheater stage! On August 27, 2019 the choir joined the band for their most famous hit, "I Want to Know What Love Is," and belted the chorus in front of a SOLD OUT audience!

Enjoy this short clip: 

Foreigner agreed to donate 50% of the proceeds from their CD sales that evening to Artpark Bridges program.  Thank you to Foreigner for their generosity! 

 

The founding of ARTPARK BRIDGES

Supporting Artpark’s mission to create unique cultural experiences and nurture artistic expression, Artpark Bridges developed into a standalone program following an initial community-outreach performance project called The Odyssey in 2018. The Odyssey, an immersive theater experience, featured over 200 community participants including individuals from People Inc. and Empower, two local health and human services agencies that serve adults living with developmental and intellectual disabilities. After the show closed, both organizations voluntarily offered positive Evaluation Feedback, citing their impact and benefits. This powerful outcome inspired Artpark to sustain and grow these community connections, by empowering individuals of diverse needs and backgrounds, uplifting their voices, and establishing opportunities to build and share their work publicly.

In 2019, with support from the Charles D. and Mary A. Bauer Foundation, Artpark Bridges invited returning partners People Inc. and Empower, to work with teaching artists Cynthia Pegado, Griffin Brady and Connor Caso on various artistic exercises. The groups met at Artpark and in their own facilities learning dance, drumming, and visual art as preparation for public performances at the Artpark amphitheater in Strawberry Moon Festival and on Mainstage with rock legends Foreigner as backing choir. Artpark Bridges participants also collaborated on a sonic sculpture installation, designing and decorating what became a focal point in the Artpark Percussion Garden, another initiative made possible by the support of Charles D. and Mary A. Bauer Foundation. This installation, called the Artpark Bridges Garden, represents an invitation towards universal barrier-free creativity for all.

In 2020, Cynthia Pegado was employed as a part-time seasonal Director of Artpark Bridges. During the COVID seasons of 2020 and 2021, she shifted strategies to ensure our work continued during lockdown, expanding to now serve local individuals with Parkinson’s and Artisan’s Edge, an offshoot program of People Inc. Cynthia arranged regular Zoom and live experiences, which often served as our participant’s only available outlet for social interaction. When possible, the program took full advantage of Artpark’s grounds to host socially distanced and masked expressive arts workshops and projects, and each group discovered new ways of creating on-site or off-site. As programming went forward, we learned that this was an extremely important decision since Bridges had already embedded itself as an invaluable link for our constituents. These interactions alleviated emotional and social health issues due to isolation and loss of other supportive services. 

As a capstone “lockdown” project, Cynthia partnered with The Solo Roths to attend Bridges’ virtual expressive arts workshops and incorporate source material and voices from Artpark Bridges participants into a commissioned parking lot mural at Artpark. Many of those ideas are now painted on Artpark’s Parking Lot D as part of “The Solo Roths Waltz Across the Red Hot Colossus Lot.” Importantly, our Bridges participants also spent the summer painting the designs under the guidance of the Solo Roths. 

In 2023, now in its fifth year, Artpark Bridges continues to serve a diverse community, focused on individuals receiving services through local health and human services agencies. This year Artpark Bridges includes participants from established relationships with People Inc, Empower, Artisans’ Edge, Parkinson’s Independent Living Community, Buffalo Public Schools Adult Learning ESL-Naturalization Program, and St. Mary’s School for the Deaf. New this year is programming for people living with sight loss and low vision. 

Ms. Pegado, now a year-round employee, will organize year-round workshops and programs for over 140 people based on current enrollment estimates from all partner agencies. Each group will have its own session structure, timeframes, and goals, but there will be a common thread of programming based around the Anne Frank Project, originated out of Buffalo State University. Teaching artists from the Anne Frank Project will work with Bridges participants in communal story-building projects.

The Anne Frank Project is a story-based learning program that believes that story matters, and that telling our stories will improve the world. Founded by professor Drew Kahn at Buffalo State University, the mission of the project is to use story as a vehicle for community building, conflict resolution, and identity exploration, inspired by the wisdom of Anne Frank. This will be the third year of partnership between Artpark Bridges and the Anne Frank project. 

This program year, January-December, Bridges aspires to host 56 session hours by teachers with the Anne Frank Project, 68 session hours by local guest artists, 30 session hours by indigenous teachers, 30 session hours by artist-in-residence Jon Lehrer Dance Company, 20 session hours by artist-in-residence Sly Boots/Griffin Brady, 28 session hours by local writers and 45 master class hours by Cynthia, totalling 277 session hours supporting our 140+ anticipated participants. 

 

 

Thank you to our SUPPORTERS

The Artpark Bridges program is supported by: 

Joe and Pam Priest, WGRZ Channel 2 and TEGNA Foundation, Teresa Williams, Thomas Donahower, Joseph Certo, Marla and Jeffrey Williams, Betty Szatkowski, Anthony Cipolla, Paulette M. Crooke, Roger Trevino, Joe Brown, Nancy DiBacco, Janice and Michael Vitch, Mary Powell, Kelly Turner, Greg Schlaich, Jerome P. Brydges and Family, David Barnes, Michele O. Heffernan, Jean Gaulin, Mike Schott, Maureen Schmitt, Thomas B. Burrows, Maureen Schmitt, Chester Spivey, Nick Langworthy, Adam Burns, Susan Royal, Senator Robert G. Ortt, Carol Calato, Michael Tunkey, Melissa Brydges, Margaret Nucci, Kelly Schultz, Glenn Hart, George Tysowsky, Erin Turner, Eric White, Elizabeth Brydges, Donna & JT Tomkins, Dave & Susan Wedekindt, Carol Mack, Barbara Rizzo, Andrew Brydges, Suzanne Diffine   

 

Artpark Bridges is a year-round community arts engagement program that connects participants with Artpark's legacy of innovation and possibility. 

 

Experience music, movement, dance, drama or visual art as unique opportunities for creativity, inclusion and healing through the arts. 

 

 

Artpark Bridges celebrates and supports all participants in their quest to find vibrant expression and expanded capacity. 

 

 

Interactive workshops are custom-designed to meet each group’s aims and needs.

 

 

Evidence-based methodologies support meaningful art practices and experiences for people living with disAbilities and people self-identifying as non-disabled. 

 

 

We welcome:

 

Community groups

Human service organizations 

People living with progressive disease

Care partners for adults and youth

Neuro-diverse and Neuro-typical participants 

 

Led by trained and certified Artpark teaching artists and Artpark artists-in-residence.

 

Programming is offered at Artpark and at partner sites in Niagara and Erie counties.

Ask about participating in our optional performance projects!