ASD en route

Play Me, I’m Yours

    It all started with a piano. A plain, brown nondescript piano that would transform into a modern work of art at the hands of the artists of CECA. In early 2012 we received an invitation to be part of the international project “Play Me, I’m Yours” by British artist Luke Jerram. Over 700 pianos have been installed in public spaces around the world for anyone and everyone to play at will. 30 pianos were destined for the Los Angeles area as part of collaboration between local artists, musicians, and the public. Each piano would become a unique piece of art placed in public places throughout the Southland to be played in unison at noon on April 12^th. The pianos would remain available to the public until May 3^rd, and then each would be donated to schools, programs, and organizations in need. ASD was selected among many worthy candidates to receive and collaborate on one of the 30 pianos. This is where the journey of the piano and the artists of CECA begin.        

      I have been an art instructor at CECA for almost 2 years. We have experimented with almost every medium from painting, fiber, ceramics to underwater basket weaving (ok, maybe not the underwater basket weaving).Through our experiments in different media I found a special connection between my students and the art of the found object. The beauty of found object art is taking everyday items and turning them on their heads so to speak, finding new purpose for someone else’s trash. This shared love for turning toasters into sculptures and the contents of the kitchen junk drawer into robots inspired the imagination of my students and the design for our piano.

      Painting the piano and covering it with a random assortment of found objects from sets of silverware to plastic animals created an amazing, organic creative process between students and staff. We all left our mark on that old, brown piano. Over the course of a few months of hard work and dedication by my students the piano underwent a metamorphosis of sorts and emerged a bright, playful and conversation sparking piece that would make Marcel Duchamp proud.

Stephanie Escobar, art instructor

Watch Out for The Fire!

I’ve been a Music Therapist at ASD for 6 years now. It’s been such a joy to learn about the students here discovering their interests and talents, and having the privilege of making unique music together, music that I could have never experienced on my own. I am convinced that Iron Maiden’s #1 fan is a student at A.R.T. Center. His name is Sergio, but he prefers to be called “Maiden” in honor of the band. He drew a design for T-shirts that he and I have often coordinated wearing on the same day! He has also given me the nickname “Liz Maiden.” As “Maiden” began to develop his passion for singing the band’s songs, his style of singing became contagious throughout A.R.T. Center. The more passion he shared with his peers, the more they began to show interest in Iron Maiden’s music as well. Because of this, I incorporated this style of music into a songwriting class, co-taught with my Music Therapy Intern, and as a group we wrote a song titled “Watch Out for the Fire!”. As the class evolved, students began to sing the chorus of the song throughout the day, and showed excitement for the song. Even the staff began to sing the song, improvising based on the situation, “Watch out for the door!”

 The following semester, Maiden recorded the song (staff sang too!) and began working on making a video in a class I co-taught with a drama instructor. Students contributed ideas to the video. How would we portray the story on film? How do we add fire on video, given the fact that we can’t actually MAKE a fire to record on film? Where should the party be? What does it look like? Student expressed their ideas, and the instructors used this information to help bring these ideas to life. We were fortunate enough to be able to use a green screen, so we did a majority of our filming with the green screen, using background images and video found online, as well as some video that I filmed outside of program. I wont give too much away. Enjoy watching!

Liz Clarke, Music Therapist