Due to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, Upturn Arts has created new policies for your family’s health and safety.

Upturn Arts staff will commit to:

• Staff wellness, vaccinations, and daily self-assessments.
• 15:2 adults to young artist ratio per class.
• Frequent hand washing and sanitizing.

Upturn Arts will provide:

• Hand sanitizer & soap.
• Disinfectant solution to clean spaces daily.
• Sanitized studio spaces, restrooms, and common areas.

To view the entire 2022 Summer Camp Orientation & COVID-19 Re-Open Plan click HERE.

See amazing footage from the Disco on WGNO!

New Orleans Mom’s Blog Summer Camp Guide!

Don’t miss Executive Director Dana Reed speaking about our programs on WGNO!

 

Register Here!

Check out this video from our last workshop , and go to Congo Kids for more information!

WHERE: The George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center

1225 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, 70106

Monday March 14 – Friday March 18 | 4:30 – 6:30 pm

Participants who attend all workshops receive an instrument voucher. Parking is available on site. Registration is required.

New Orleans is widely accepted as the birthplace of African American music.  The City maintained, transformed, and reconfigured traditional musical forms from West and Central Africa into the beginnings of blues, Mardi Gras Indian music, the second line, and jazz. Given this history, there is no better place for a celebration of West African music in America than New Orleans, and this is exactly what Pirate’s Choice Internationale is proposing.

 The program will once again bring together artists from the projects mentioned above for a week-long residency in New Orleans to celebrate West African Music.  This very special group of artists from Mali, Senegal, and America will provide youth workshops focusing on Mandé Music, and including history and instruction in Djembe, Sabar, Dunun, Kora, Djeli Ngoni, and Guitar.  Luke Quaranta (Djembe/Dununs), Sam Dickey (Djeli Ngoni/Guitar), and Yacouba Sissoko (Kora) will lead the youth workshops Monday-Wed, and then be joined for the Thursday and Friday workshops by Raja Kassis (Guitar), Morcoumba Gueye (Sabar), Alfred Jordan (Drums), and Eric Vogel (Bass).

There will be a presentation and small ceremony on Friday at Louis Armstrong Park – details TBA. There is deep significance in performing this music here in New Orleans, and the connections with New Orleans music and culture will be highlighted throughout.  We believe the young people we work with throughout the week, and all who witness this collaboration, will be profoundly impacted.

This is truly a world class lineup of artists, and the results from each of our previous collaborations has been extraordinary. “We admire Positive Vibrations Foundation’s mission and works in the New Orleans community, and sincerely appreciate their efforts to bring this special collaboration to the City.”

 

Year Founded: 2004

Problem: New Orleans youth have limited access to arts education in school.

Mission: Provide children a space to be creative through after-school and vacation programs that incorporate music, dance, theater, art, and writing.

Startup milestone: Served 250 students in 2015. Reed seeks to double that this year.

Reed’s Inspiration: “What I call the upturn moments in a child’s life. Those are the moments where they go “aha,” where you can see a child light up,” Reed said.

Past life: Reed traded currency on Wall Street by day and worked as a dance instructor at night while living in New York City. “Most people don’t know that about me,” Reed said.

Check out a feature on our Executive Director, Dana Reed, in a Nola.com article about her participation in PitchNOLA!  See the article here: 10 entrepreneurs tackle New Orleans’ toughest problems