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Young Audiences Hosts SHOWCASE 2008

September 16, 2008 – Atlanta, GA – Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YAWAC) is proud to announce two successful SHOWCASEs. SHOWCASE is an annual event presented by YAWAC which serves to provide teachers, administrators and parents with the opportunity to observe each of Young Audiences’ artists in action in order to better plan in-school arts experiences for the coming school year. SHOWCASE also includes an artist display area, which offers guests and artists the opportunity for face-to-face interaction and discussion about ways to work together to bring the arts into the lives of Georgia children.

This year, YAWAC hosted not one but two SHOWCASEs in Atlanta – one in South metro and one in North metro. SHOWCASE was held on Wednesday, August 27^th at the Clayton County Performing Arts Center and on Wednesday, September 3^rd at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. A workshop about grant writing was also held after each SHOWCASE for interested attendees. This year’s event was sponsored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Popeyes, Waffle House, the Coca-Cola Company, and Glaceau. Over 300 attendees filled both venues to see artists perform and to learn about how Young Audiences can help improve and enrich the lives and learning of children.

The four-hour event featured Young Audiences’ artists from a variety of disciplines, including Kuchipudi, Modern and West African dance; classical Western, Latino, Celtic, Russian and African music; traditional, improvisational and puppet theatre; storytelling; and visual arts encompassing painting, drawing, sculpting, photography, papermaking, fabric arts and more. Parents and teachers from throughout the state, and even Tennessee, came to enjoy our professional teaching artists. The new venues provided a new energy and spark to this long-standing tradition.

YAWAC is proud to have celebrated its 25^th anniversary last year and SHOWCASE 2008 was the perfect way to cap off the year’s festivities. Tony Kimbrell, Executive Director of Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center, said, “Having SHOWCASE out in the communities we serve was so exciting. The venues were filled with people who were passionate about bringing arts to children! Young Audiences was and is so pleased to bring the finest professional arts experiences available into schools, libraries, arts councils and community centers and organizations across the state.”

About Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center

Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YAWAC) is a leading provider of arts-in-education programming in the Southeast. Part of the 31-chapter national Young Audiences organization, YAWAC brings the power of live arts experiences to Georgia students from pre-school to high school. From a small organization of nine artists in 1983, YAWAC has grown into a force in arts education, comprising more than 65 professional artists and ensembles that reach more than one million students each year. We fulfill our mission – to improve and enrich the lives and learning of children through high quality arts experience – by providing a dazzling and culturally diverse array of curriculum-based performances, workshops and residencies in music, dance, theatre, literary and visual arts. For more information, please visit www.yawac.org.

About Woodruff Arts Center

The Woodruff Arts Center is the largest arts centers in the Southeast as well as one of the four largest in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines five visual and performing arts divisions on one campus as one not-for-profit organization. Opening in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, Young Audiences and the 14^th Street Playhouse.