3/30/2022
Education and Outreach
As a teaching artist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, David Olmeca Barragan knows well that distance learning secluded many Southern Nevada students and teachers.
The Smith Center’s Education and Outreach team knows it, too.
“We will see the lasting effects of this isolating time among our youth for years to come,” says Melanie Jupp, associate director of Education and Outreach.
So, with students now back in school, Barragan and The Smith Center decided to help students reconnect.
And what better way, than with hip-hop and breakdancing?
Through a collaboration with The Smith Center’s Education and Outreach Department, Barragan and his artist collective Raow Raow gave a special, in-person performance at Valley High School in early 2022.
Showcasing the talents of 10 artists, the show featured a wide range of artforms, including rap, hip-hop, spoken word, visual art, R&B, live looping and street dancing.
Students responded with tremendous enthusiasm.
“The passion and love (the performers) put into the lyrics, dances, art and music is amazing," one student says.
This serves as just the latest example of The Smith Center’s leading approach to engaging students.
“We place high priority on presenting artforms that are relevant to students today,” Jupp says. “When kids hear hip-hop and see street dancing, they get excited. It’s something they recognize and enjoy, and it lights a fire in them to get creative and find their own means of self-expression.”
Groundbreaking Programming for Students
In fact, The Smith Center regularly offers arts experiences for students with contemporary artforms like hip-hop, beatboxing, street dancing, rap and more.
Just a few past examples include multiple student matinees with playwright-choreographer Paige Hernandez, who taught students hip-hop and beatboxing along with lessons about self-care and self-expression. The virtual matinee Grimmz Fairy Tales, staged as a hip-hop concert, put a modern spin on famous fairy tales.
“There are so many leading artists out there, tailoring these artforms to children and teenagers, in a way they can understand and relate to,” Jupp says.
Constantly innovating its approach to inspire Southern Nevada students through the arts, The Smith Center’s Education and Outreach Department strives to showcase exactly these kinds of artists.
As a nonprofit, The Smith Center provides these arts-education experiences at no cost to schools.
“We always receive very passionate responses from students,” Jupp says. “Many teachers bridge these experiences to lessons about other topics, like history, different cultures and even jobs in the theater industry.”
An Exciting Las Vegas Resource
Few artists come as well-equipped as Barragan to enlighten and engage students.
As a bilingual hip-hop artist, producer, activist, and scholar, he serves as an influential fixture in Latinx culture across the United States.
In 2020, he formed Raow Raow, a collection of artists across many mediums, to create groundbreaking art with a focus on intersecting art, politics and culture. He has previously collaborated with The Smith Center on virtual artist residency presentations.
The center’s Education and Outreach team hoped the Raow Raow event at Valley High School would provide students with an empowering and uplifting experience, Jupp says.
“Raow Raow’s street-style performance not only engaged kids, but helped show them that art can take many forms, and that there are many creative ways to express themselves and connect with others,” she says.
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