Creative Action Building Campaign: Founder/Architect Eva Schone Explains Concept

Creative Action supplies a link to the Trophyology website of its founder, architect Eva Schone:

Besides designing TROPHYOLOGY’s awards and recognition gifts, founder and creative director Eva Schone enjoyed her work as a project architect with Tom Hurt Architecture in Austin, Texas.

These two parts of Eva’s creative work come together in a project that is very special to her and that embodies many of the values that we hold dear at TROPHYOLOGY.

Earlier this month, ground was broken in East Austin for the new headquarters building for Creative Action. This nonprofit group, headed by executive director Karen LaShelle, inspires youths to learn academically, socially and emotionally through arts activities. Creative Action serves more than 18,000 children a year in our community.

Tom Hurt Architecture was selected to be the architecture firm for the new building in 2009, and it was Eva’s distinct pleasure to be the project architect for this project. Working closely with Tom Hurt, she designed the building and managed the design process. “We’ve been working on this project for the past 3 ½ years,” Eva says. “This has been a dream project for me. It is has every aspect that I am looking for as an architect.“ Slated to open in September 2014, the building, situated on a triangular lot that challenged the architects, will have 7,500 square feet over two stories. The ground floor will welcome program participants in classroom spaces, and the upper floor will house Creative Action’s administrative offices.

The story of the project begins several years ago, when the Meredith family, which is well known for their significant philanthropic contributions in Austin, had a vision to create a community hub in East Austin, adjacent to the MLK light rail stop. The Sustainable Food Center and PeopleFund are the other two organizations that form the trifecta of the new “Chestnut Social Profit Village.” In addition, the development will include an amphitheater, trails, a skate park and community gardens.

The new Center for Creative Action was designed to have generous views of the community gardens and rooms filled with daylight, which was important to Eva. “Natural light has such positive effects on children and learning.” Eva notes. In addition, ”operable windows will allow the building users to “live with the seasons,” she says. Reclaimed brick will bring a quality material to the building. Eva is proud that the project team was able to secure the reclaimed brick at a reduced price, assisting the sustainability of the building in more than one way. A prominent brick exterior wall will continue throughout the building like a spine, Eva says, so that the beautiful, history-rich brick can be appreciated both on the outside and on the inside.

Read more and view architectural sketches at www.trophyology.com

Video: Creative Action Opens Funding Campaign for Its Own Building in East Austin

Posted at the website of

Goal: $50,000 by January 1, 2014

Click to go to donations page

National Endowment for the Arts Grants $40,000 to Creative Action to Train AISD Teachers in Arts-Based Education

This week the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that Austin’s Creative Action will receive a $40,000 NEA Art Works grant to support the “Creative Action In the Classroom” project.

This innovative project will allow Creative Action (formerly Theatre Action Project), in partnership with MINDPOP, to deliver powerful arts experiences to 2,500 AISD students, but it will also allow it to provide targeted professional development to teachers that will help them incorporate arts-based strategies as part of their teaching.

“What makes this project so important,” says Karen LaShelle, executive director of Creative Action, “it allows us to model and then train teachers on the effective strategies we use every day to inspire, engage and educate youth. Teachers can keep using those strategies across the curriculum making the entire educational experience more fun, more interactive and ultimately as studies have shown, more successful.”

Launched with in-depth research last year, the project is a collaboration among Creative Action, MINDPOP, Austin Independent School District and City of Austin. Creative Action staff will train a total of 125 classroom teachers in arts-based teaching strategies to support district-identified gaps in arts education.

According to a report published last year by the NEA, "The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth," at-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement. The study reports these and other positive outcomes associated with high levels of arts exposure for youth of low socioeconomic status.

“Arts and social and emotional learning continue to be an important part of the curriculum in schools,” says LaShelle, “especially since we know that engaging youth creatively and supporting their personal growth is critical to student success.”

As Austin’s largest provider of after-school programming, arts enrichment, and character education programming in Central Texas, Creative Action serves more than 16,000 children and young people every year. The NEA grant marks a significant point of growth for Creative Action, which is already the largest arts-education organization in Central Texas. Last year, Creative Action won a $150,000 grant from Impact Austin for its “New Stages” youth ensemble and it was a finalist for the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, selected by the President’s Committee on the Arts.

Creative Action Names New Board Members

Creative Action Welcomes New Board Members

Creative Action, formerly Theatre Action Project, an Austin area nonprofit arts organization recently named new members Amy Averett and Monica Gill to their board of directors.




Amy Averett, Director, Private and Community Events, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
 
Amy attended Rice University as an undergraduate and holds Master Degrees in Nonprofit Management and Community Organizing from the University of Pittsburgh. After a fifteen-year career in the nonprofit sector with a focus on public education, she joined the staff of the Alamo Drafthouse as Community Relations Coordinator. She now directs the Private and Community Events department for all Alamo markets.


Monica Gill, Director of Client Services, Bridgepoint Consulting


Monica moved to Austin in 1994, joining Schlotzsky’s, Inc. just prior to their initial public offering, and later becoming CFO of the company. Subsequently, Monica has served as the CFO for a couple of small privately held companies here in Austin. In 2008, Monica joined Bridgepoint Consulting as their Director of Client Services. Monica manages the firm’s team of consulting professionals, and works directly with the firm’s clients in identifying their resource needs. Monica received her BBA from Stephen F. Austin State University and is a Texas CPA.





About our new name: Theatre Action Project, the Austin, Texas arts education nonprofit announced a rebranding campaign in September taking the new name for the organization, Creative Action. The organization began in 1997 as a violence prevention project conducted by University of Texas graduate students in the Drama and Theatre for Youth Program at UT and became a nonprofit organization in 2001.




Creative Action sparks and supports the academic, social and emotional development of young people. Through interactive classroom performances, after school residencies and community based programs, Creative Action's team of professional teaching artists inspire youth to be creative artists, courageous allies, critical thinkers and confident leaders in their community.

inspiring young minds through the arts

www.creativeaction.org

Upcoming: I Spy Pie! fundraiser for Creative Action (Theatre Action Project), Central Market North, October 20

Creative Action (formerly Theatre Action Project)

invites you to

I Spy Pie!

Central Market North, 4001 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78756

Saturday, October 20th 12 noon to 3 p.m.

I Spy Pie! is the latest spectacle of delicious treats and arts brought to Central Market North by Creative Action and sponsor H.E.B. The fun family event includes games, crafts, face painting, and, live music from the Emmy Award winning The Biscuit Brothers and Jungle Jill and the Jay Birds. The delicious pie tastings and competition feature some of Austin’s finest bakeries including Central Market Bakery, Central Market Cooking School, Jeffrey’s and Texas Pie Kitchen. This year celebrity pie judges are Jim Swift (KXAN-TV), actress Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (Fletch and Friday Night Lights), and Nina Seely (Trento Restaurant). Pie-tasting tickets are $5 giving attendees the opportunity to taste all pie entries, as well as a vote for their favorite entry. For more info email: maryalice@theatreactionproject.org

(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Theatre Action Project Rebrands: Creative Action

[received September 12]

Creative Action Emerges with Rebranding of Theatre Action Project

 

Theatre Action Project, the Austin, Texas arts education nonprofit today announced a rebranding campaign including taking the new name for the organization, Creative Action. The organization began in 1997 as a violence prevention project conducted by University of Texas graduate students in the Drama and Theatre for Youth Program at UT and became a nonprofit organization in 2001. With today’s announcement, Executive Director Karen LaShelle shared the decision behind the rebranding:

Over the past fifteen years we have been busy. Really busy. We (a team of artists, educators and youth development professionals) have tirelessly dedicated ourselves to using our creative skills to engage and educate thousands (close to 100,000!) of young people. We have grown from a handful of volunteers into one of the largest arts organization in Austin, employing more than 60 artists every year. Last spring we were named one of the top 50 arts education organizations in the nation by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Our programs are in seven local school districts each week.

Our ultimate goal is, and always will be, to provide unique experiences and opportunities that give youth the skills they need to improve their own lives and the world around them. As those of you that know us well can attest, we never set out to make youth into thespians; we simply know that using theatre and dramatic role-play to teach young people really hooks them in a special way.

As we have evolved to best meet the needs of Central Texas youth, we have continued to innovate and find even more ways to engage and spark the hearts and minds of kids. So, what began as a program mostly using theatre, role-play, and drama, has become something much more expansive. Today, we employ a host of creative arts, including film, dance, music, visual art, media arts, and whatever other random acts of creativity the moment calls for to help us meet our mission. And the name, Theatre Action Project, just doesn't describe what we do anymore.

Today, we are happy to announce our new name: Creative Action. This new name reflects our dedication to using a variety of creative art forms to carry out our mission: to activate the academic, social and emotional development of young people. We will still provide our acclaimed interactive classroom performances, after school arts residencies, and community-based youth theatre programs to inspire youth to be creative artists, courageous allies, critical thinkers, and confident leaders in their community. We just have a better name to describe what we are all about!

We are excited to share this new development with you, and thank you for your support as we move forward!

 

Creative Action serves 16,000 youth annually in six area school districts. The organization is the largest provider of arts education programs in the Central Texas area.

Creative Action uses the creative arts to activate the academic, social and emotional development of young people. Through interactive classroom performances, after school residencies and community based programs, Creative Action's team of professional teaching artists inspire youth to be creative artists, courageous allies, critical thinkers and confident leaders in their community.

Inspiring young minds through the arts.

www.creativeaction.org

[AustinLiveTheatre note: website www.austintheatreproject.org is still on-line, while the new URL is not yet active]