SpArc Rocks

Overview

The performers in “SpArc Rocks” are artists at the Cultural Arts program of SpArc Services, a nonprofit dedicated to serving people with disabilities.

The Cultural Arts Center at SpArc Services provides a holistic curriculum in the arts through weekly classes in visual arts, ceramics, music, film, theater, fashion, and dance. The Cultural Arts Centers also provides participants with outings to cultural venues and connections with other arts-based organizations.

This show offers comedic skits and musical inventions, two modes of performance that the artists have been honing and rehearsing.

The music component includes songs written by participants, inspired by everything from their families to space monsters to the feelings you get on a rainy day. The comedy component of the show focuses on skits developed by the artists. Comedy is a form of performance that can address, satirize, and confront issues of power, so we sought to empower the artists with instruction on the delivery of comedy.

About the Artist

The Cultural Arts Center at SpArc Services provides a holistic curriculum in the arts through weekly classes in visual arts, ceramics, music, film, theater, fashion, and dance for adults with disabilities. The Cultural Arts Center also provides participants with outings to cultural venues and connections with other arts-based organizations.

In spring 2023, the artists at the Cultural Arts Center developed their own fashion line and created their own clothes, then fiercely modeled their fashions during a wildly-successful runway show. Artists from the Cultural Arts program have conceived and presented original plays including House of Dreams at the Rotunda, and five performances, Shaky Shaky Planet, Doom Play, The TV Show, Benthic Blast, and The Fantastic Avengers: The Musical, as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

The Cultural Arts Center is a program of SpArc Services, part of the SpArc Philadelphia family of organizations, including The Arc of Philadelphia and SpArc Services, that benefit individuals with disabilities and help them achieve their personal goals of independence through choice, self-determination, inclusion, and community connections. You can find artwork, including paintings and crafts, from the participants in the Cultural Arts Center on our online marketplace, www.sparcmarketplace.org or at Studio 2 at Cherry Street Pier.