CLARA

Today marks the first day of summer for Sacramento City Unified students -- and the start of 100 summer vacations for our building, the former Fremont School! The Fremont School was built during the 1920-21 school year and first served Sacramento City Unified School District kids in the fall of 1921. What stories this building could tell! And we look forward to throwing one heck of a "back to school" party in the fall. :)

Let's Dance! Learn about Navajo shaker dance, and modern dance through instructional videos on the PBS Learning Media website! Explore dance forms, appreciation, and analysis of how dance works and even the history of dance from the comfort of your own home! Click on the post to get dancing! #dance #dancers #dancelife #danceclass

Feel the beat! Join the Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange (at CLARA) every Saturday from 1-2:30 for drumming classes! $15 drop-in / All ages and skill levels welcome. Meet in front of the Brazilian Center (enter through the parking lot on O, and head to the low yellow building closest to 25th St. Check the link for more info! #brazilian #drumming #drummer https://braziliancentersac.org/brazilian-drum-classes/

Interested in learning Irish dance? McKeever School of Irish Dance has a variety of indoor and outdoor classes for beginning and advanced students. To get started, visit their website by clicking the link below. #IRISHDANCE #dance #sacramento URL: https://bit.ly/3iFC4C1

At the heart of every good performance, there's a great story. Join CapRadio next Friday for a free virtual storytelling webinar, featuring five storytellers sharing true personal stories on the theme "Journey." Click on the link post to register for the event today! #storytelling #webinar #storyteller #sacramento

Join McKeever School of Irish Dancethis Saturday for the annual holiday market -- now outside, and featuring social distance. On the lawn at 2420 N St, Saturday 11-2pm. See you here!

Miss live performance? Us too! This isn't live, but it IS a chance to see our friends at CapStage bring a virtual performance straight to your living room -- streaming is free, but advance registration is required. The Great Leap, by Lauren Yee, follows an American college basketball team on an exhibition trip to Beijing in 1989. By turns heartwarming and hilarious, The Great Leap is available through this Sunday only. See it here: http://ow.ly/4AN350BWEtc

Did you hear? We're winners! Last week, CLARA (and CLARA resident arts group the Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange) were both honored by the Midtown Neighborhood Association with their "community partner" award for our partnership and community support over the past year. Thanks for the love, guys! We are proud to be part of Midtown and look forward to continuing to work together in the months ahead.

Congratulations to the Brazilian Center For Cultural Exchange -- with support from the Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture, they have been able to keep their organization active over the past several months while serving the community! More than 400 homeless people per week are fed, thanks to the Brazilian Center. Learn more here: braziliancenter.org/leanonme

Third Friday of the month! Pre-COVID, the monthly Creative Mornings talk would be wrapping up in the auditorium right about now. We miss our CreativeMornings Sacramento crew and hope to all be able to be together again soon. For now, though, there's no reason you can't check out CM Virtual -- an international collection of inspiring talks on a monthly theme. This month's theme: transport. Find a morning for creativity here: https://www.creativemornings.com/talks/upcoming

October is National Arts and Humanities Month! Our friends at @Americans for the Arts posted a challenge at the top of the month for a new creative act each day. Today, Oct 15, they ask "What is your favorite arts memory?" Share yours (image or words) in the comments below! Let's celebrate some art!

Are you ready for some fall fun? The Midtown Fall Festival is happening in CLARA's parking lot this weekend! Music, vendors, crafts for kids -- hope to see you here.

Looking for ways to support your local live theatre org? Capital Stage is proud to be a local broadcast partner for "It Can't Happen Here," a searing, satirical radio play broadcast just in time for the 2020 election and featuring Capital Stage favorite, Scott Coopwood! Broadcast debuts today and is available on demand through November 8.

Join CLARA and SacBallet this weekend for the Midtown Fall Festival! Outdoor, socially-distanced crafts for kids, plus local artisans, free dance demonstrations and more! See you here (Enter via the parking lot on O St)

It’s international Irish dance day! Join McKeever School of Irish Dance for a free lesson, today at 1pm!

The performing arts and event industries were among the first to shut down and they will be among the last to restart. Live events employ over 12 million people, contribute over $1 trillion annually to the U.S. economy, and include large organizations like Cirque du Soleil and LiveNation as well as local arts nonprofits like CLARA and the cultural organizations in residence within. Please help us push Congress for an additional $9 billion in emergency arts funding. We're asking them to pass the RESTART Act and extend and expand PUA and FPUC. You can contact your representatives, and post a red photo of you at your favorite event, too: https://wemakeevents.org #ExtendPUA #RedAlertRESTART

Over the weekend Midtown Vanguard Jazz Series hosted a three-night Jazz extravaganza in support of CLARA resident group Sacramento Preparatory Music Academy. Performers included Joy and Madness and @JacobSwedlow. Catch some of the action here, or mark your calendars for the next MVJS livestream concert on September 13!

Nothing can stop creativity! The efforts of Sacramento Ballet staff and volunteers, and the generous donations of Moorefield Construction have resulted in a new Outdoor Studio Stage at CLARA. This studio allows Sac Ballet trainees to safely continue pursuing their education through the fall; the studio will also be available to other CLARA tenants for their programs as well. Truly, when the arts are involved, the sky (or outdoor windsail) is the limit for what can be accomplished.

With the temperatures down and the air quality greatly improved, we're delighted to see dancers back to doing their socially distanced thing in the parking lot. Here, students from McKeever School of Irish Dance learn a new dance called "Jockey to the Fair."

Due to COVID-19, the Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange (in residence at CLARA) has been unable to host their regular dance, music, and language classes, but it hasn't stopped them from sharing their talents with those who need them most.

Hello neighbors! With lower foot traffic in Midtown due to the COVID crisis, our neighborhood has become home to a family of urban coyotes. We're grateful to everyone who has sent us sweet photos of the animals taking afternoon naps around CLARA. However, some well-meaning person has recently started leaving food for the animals on our lawn. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS. Coyotes (even urban coyotes) are wild animals, and teaching them to see humans as a source of food leads to incre...ased aggression on their part. It will also interfere with the natural separation process that the mama and her pups should be going through in the next month or so. (If they have reliable access to food in this area, the family will stay put.) We love wildlife (in the wild), and we have enjoyed catching sight of these gorgeous animals in our daily work, but this is the natural time of year when they would be moving along, and for the health and safety of the animals (as well as the safety of staff who need to access the building right now), we ask that anyone leaving food at CLARA for the coyotes please stop immediately. Thank you! See more