MISSION The Performance Project is an arts community of many ages and ancestries that engages young people in artistic training, inter-generational mentoring, leadership development, and community building through the arts.
THE PERFORMANCE PROJECT
The Performance Project began in 2000 as a theater and movement workshop at the Hampshire Jail and House of Corrections in Northampton, MA. We collaborated incarcerated men to create performances based on their personal life experiences to encourage self-reflection and healing.
Our work with youth began in 2008 with First Generation youth program.
FIRST GENERATION
First Generation engages youth in artistic training, inter-generational mentoring, leadership development, social justice and community building through the arts. First Gen members may be the first in their family to grow up in the US, to speak English, to graduate high school, go to college, be openly LGBT+, be an activist, break a silence, among many other firsts....
First Gen youth participants create original multi-lingual physical theater. Our plays have been performed in schools, colleges, theaters, summits and conferences in Western Massachusetts, and at two international theater festivals.
VISUAL ARTS
Visual Art Residencies bring our artistic and community building process to youth who are incarcerated and in treatment.