Recent Artist in Residence, Ballet Spartanburg, featuring Artistic Director Carlos Agudelo and Dance Instructor Haley Bolton, worked with the entire fourth grade class at O.P. Earle Elementary School to develop an original dance.

The students performed their dance, complete with props and background for the community on May 14.
Following the performance, the artists and students were honored with a reception, a Kessler Cultural Evening, in the Principal’s Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. The residency and reception were made possible by the generous funding of the Polk County Community Foundation, Mary F. Kessler Fund.

The mission of the Kessler Cultural Evening project at O.P. Earle Elementary School is to provide an artistically enriched educational environment integrating academics with the arts, including movement, encouraging students along with the home and community, to be creators, consumers and life-long supporters of the arts.

The goal of the cultural evening is to continue developing community arts networks, helping make Mary F. Kessler’s dreams for her community become an ongoing actuality.

– article submitted by Dawn Lynch