Very Special Festival of the Arts Archive
I Can Do That! A Very Special Festival of the Arts, Friday, May 19, 2006:
The 20th Anniversary celebration of I Can Do That! kicked off with a performance by the Leonardo da Vinci School Blues Band. The band warmed the stage for performances by Aztec dancers, puppeteers, Hip Hop artists, drummers, interprestive jazz dancers, and very funny stage emcees, Gregory King and Charlotte Davis Parks. Down the hall, four rooms boasted collections of artwork from children of all ages, including papier mache roosters, ceramic masks, film-strip drawings, watercolor and acrylic paintings, and even a large mural. Outside, the kids grooved to the musical stylings of the Short Center's premier rock band, The Tu Tones, while they created art work at over fifty funshops. There were clowns and bag pipers, and over sixty volunteers (please visit our volunteers and special guests page above!) helping to make the festival a truly wonderful event. CSUS Community Transition student, Bylyn, and Hip Hop dancer, Rocco, put on a Hip Hop workshop and Southside Art Center's Purple Jam Band had kids keeping rhythym at a drumming funshop.
Festival goers dress up for the "Photo Button Booth" (left), create "Dot Pictures" (second left), and make "Tile Monoprint" paintings (right) at the Festival's many Funshop booths.
An email received after the festival from bag pipe artist, Jim Park:
Friday, May 19 was the 20th anniversary of my piping for the Very Special Festival of the Arts. As some of you may recall, this festival is for all of the special needs kids in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
They arrive in bus after bus - big buses and little one – between 9:00 and 10:00am until you wonder how there could be so many special children. But then Sacramento is a big city now. The big buses have to come down T Street in a mostly residential area and make a U-turn so they can park in front of the Coloma Center. Not easy since the big buses are really gigantic. The Coloma Center used to be a school but now the class rooms and all have been set up for meetings, conferences and events like Very Special Arts.
This year there was another piper there. He was to do it last year because I couldn’t and he forgot to come, so he came this year to pay his debt to Alice. That was fine with me since Lyle Seeband is an excellent piper and can pipe for an hour whereas I can do five tunes and then I need to rest my mouth. So he piped for the children coming off the buses which is a chore since they keep coming for an hour or more.
I wandered around the back area of the school where the activity tables were set up and piped for the children as they enjoyed the various activities. There was finger painting, yarn constructions, a city of large refrigerator boxes which the children could decorate, hand prints and many more activities. A photographer had set up a professional outdoor portrait studio to take pictures of children alone or in small groups, which pleases the children. The back area also had the coffee and goodies for the volunteers.
The children vary greatly in ability but all worked with great enthusiasm. Most were quite mobile and their teachers had to slow them down. Others had physical difficulties ranging from a severe limp to total wheel chair dependency. There are such marvelous powered chairs these days that can be operated by one finger or a twitch of the head.
It is a fun gig since the children are friendly and appreciative.
--Jim
VSAS Community Partners
