School Field Trips

Beyond our programming for the public and specific Somerville Housing Authority groups, we are piloting a new field trip program for local school groups.

We welcome school audiences to come to the Mystic Activity Center, in the Somerville Housing Authority’s Mystic River Development, to experience performances by Around Hear’s adventurous and friendly team of resident and guest artists.

Grounded as artists in the world of classical chamber music, we believe in connecting across art forms and musical styles and offering our diverse audiences multiple entry points into our musical world. To that end, this fall we are interweaving a wide range of chamber music for piano, strings, and voice with two traditional forms of puppetry: tabletop toy theater in October and a moving panorama (a.k.a. crankie) in December.

At these events we welcome interaction between artists and listeners. Knowing that not everyone does their best listening sitting still, we invite the students during key points of the performances to use the art and writing supplies and space that we provide to create and move in response to the music that we share.

Our goal for these school field trip performances is threefold:

–to awaken and nurture in Somerville’s youth a curiosity about and love for classical chamber music and the other arts forms we include in our performances.

–to provide student groups an opportunity to practice being a positive, respectful, joyful, open listening community in an intimate, judgment-free, non-school space, during a special time dedicated to arts enjoyment and learning.

–to foster among our city’s youth a sense of belonging and pride in the Mystic and in our city’s other vibrant public housing neighborhoods, as well as an awareness of and appreciation for the individuals and organizations who call the Somerville Housing Authority home.

DATES FOR FALL 2023

Friday, October 13, 2023: morning and afternoon

Friday, December 8, 2023: morning and afternoon

DURATION

45-60 minutes

LOCATION

Mystic Activity Center

530 Mystic Avenue, Somerville, MA 02145

TARGET AUDIENCE

Classes and groups from Somerville Public Schools and local charter schools

Grades K-12, in single- or mixed-grade groups

Capacity: maximum 60 attendees at a time

FEE

We are currently offering this field trip opportunity to Somerville Public School and local charter school groups for free. School groups will be responsible for providing their own transportation, chaperones, snacks and drinks. If you are coming from a private school or another non-public educational program, we suggest a donation to Around Hear of $800 per group.