This program brings educational classical music performances to underserved schools throughout North America, recognizing the crucial role that arts in the schools can play.
Current productions include Bach Rocks and Mozart Swings as well as Music Can Be Anything, performed by Forbidden Flutes, the wildly imaginative duo formed by Laura Barron and Liesa Norman in 1998. In addition to recent concerts for Vancouver's Downtown Eastside schools, Lord Strathcona and Seymour Elementary, Instruments of Change has produced concerts for students in Massachusetts, Arizona and the Yukon.
Giving Room Concerts are benefit house performances, produced by Instruments of Change, which fuse the power of music with our communities' generous spirit of philanthropy in the service of a variety of non-profit organizations.
By bringing world-class live performance into people's home to raise funds for the charity of the host's choice, the Giving Room creates meaningful experiences for its artists, its hosts and its beneficiaries. In 2010, Instruments of Change collectively raised $12,000 for Vancouver's Saint James Music Academy, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Sedona Sunrise Seniors Centre.
This partnership with the Vancouver International Song Institutefacilitates educational activites, for artists and individuals, that explore the burgeoning field of Art for Social Change. Its 2012 initative hosted a five-day Film and Speaker Series, at the VanCity Theatre, highlighting arts-based, community projects around the globe. In 2014, the program is intended to evolve into a series of creative writing and music composition workshops that will bring UBC composers and Carnegie Centre writers into collaboration to create a performance of original art songs.
This pedal-powered, multi-functional stage in development is intended for community-engaged theatre productions.
Instruments of Change artists Juliana Bedoya (sculpture and performance installation), Maggie Winston (puppetry and theatre) and Laura Barron (music and creative writing) advised the preliminary construction of this stage in partnership with students from the UBC Mechanical Engineering Department CAPSTONE course, from 2011-12. This was conceived as an emissions-free creation intended to be an active piece of mobile art that could provide a space for collaboration, innovation and education. The first phase of construction was completed thanks to our partners and a generous donation from an anonymous donor. Click here to download PDF sheet with details about this inventive project.
Captain Creative, is an arts advocacy fairy tale that uses puppetry, music, dance and print making to demonstrate the value of art in our society.
In this interactive performance, puppet theatre artist, Maggie Winston, and musician/writer, Laura Barron invite students to re-animate the theatrical world of Hueville, after it has experienced an Art Apocolypse. Captain Creative tours throughout BC schools, and the 45-minute production is appropriate for ages 8-13.