Enrichment Center <EnrichmentCenter>



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Big Valley Arts and Culture Festival (33 Fotos)
Once a year, the Merced County Arts Council puts on the Big Valley Arts and Culture Festival. Artists selling and demonstrating their work, food, music, dancing, etc... you know, the arts. We sell art (and yes, it sells). We were back this year with our ceramic tiles, cookies in a jar, and christmas cards. In addition, we sold bracelets, christmas ornaments, added pancakes in a jar to the cookies, and fresh baked cookies, muffins, and bread.
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The Enrichment Center (2 Fotos)
The Enrichment Center is an Adult Day Program for the developmentally disabled. We provide instruction in the arts-- visual arts, music, theater, dance, yoga, martial arts, media arts, and so on.
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Event Flyers (15 Fotos)
The Enrichment Center is the happenin' program in Merced County. Our dances, art rallies, and other events are well attended by the other programs and the community in general. This is a collection of some our events. We'll post new flyers as events come up. Check back regularly.
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Mandala: a personal exploration June 2008 (13 Fotos)
Photos from the June 13, 2008 artists' reception for our "Mandala: A Personal Exploration" show. The canvases are actually part of one of our Theatre Arts classes. Understanding ourselves is a part of our acting and improv classes. The Theatre Arts Teacher is Katie Young, and she has been the guiding "lama" behind the clients' look inward and outward. With additional support from Visual Arts Teacher, Robert Garcia, Katie and the clients' exploration was translated onto canvas. The show will be up until August 2008.
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Marlen Hernandez (1 Foto )
Marlen is the princess. Wherever whatever... the princess.
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Juan Betancourt (1 Foto )
Juan is a man with a wicked sense of humor, a keen intellect, an acute interest in almost everything you present him with, and... no way to communicate given the last two years waiting for someone with the state and dynavox to replace his broken voice box. Juan has faith... devout faith... and peace.
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Jose Miguel Castaneda (1 Foto )
Jose Miguel... oh, Jose Miguel. The man with the voice... the voice. You can say that again. He likes to write, sing in Spanish wearing a big cowboy hat, and stick to Carolina...and when allowed to combine all of those things with art class, he can produce some good stuff.
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James Brizendine (4 Fotos)
James is a renaissance man with a passion for painting, a knack for acting, a desire to play guitar, gets a kick out of poetry, and truly digs NASCAR, fishing, and family. His penchant for country music has made Hank Williams a regular subject for portraits.
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Shirley Brizendine (8 Fotos)
Shirley works in various media alongside her husband James.
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Crissy Hernandez (6 Fotos)
While you might not notice the quiet, shy, reserved girl, Crissy's vibrant inner persona is reflected through her preferred use of bright colors. Her portraits are uplifting; her subjects immersed in a sea of colors. I just wish she'd make one of me... She's also a yogi extraordinaire and gets down on the dance floor with some very funky moves.
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Hilda Cotta (2 Fotos)
Hilda is a wise-crackin', SpongeBob lovin', purple high top converse wearin' chick... or so she'll tell you. She is also a peacemaker, a nurturer, and a good, true friend. She is an apt art pupil, a bold actor, and a guru of all things multicultural.
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Calixta Perez (2 Fotos)
Calixta is a demure lady; modest and shy. Horacio says "hubba hubba, you're cute" when he sees her. She surprised us with her already present drawing skills, but her real love is beading.
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Sofia Mendez (1 Foto )
Sofia is originally from San Francisco. She loves reading and writing and ALWAYS has a book on her. Her first day here, she astounded us with her ability to tell us the day of the week that we were born or that our birthday would be on just by telling her our birthday. Katie and I were certain that she possessed telekinetic powers when we thought she moved a water bottle without touching it... we were wrong, but she has that aura about her. Oh yes, and she loves Juan.
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Oscar Onsurez (8 Fotos)
Oscar is a grouch, though he is not green or furry, nor does he live in a can. He is also quiet, gentle, and sensitive. Prone to both comic Chaplin-esque pantomimes and finger pointing tattles, he is an interesting fellow.
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Of These Dreams (39 Fotos)
This is the Enrichment Center's 2nd production. The dream world is one of limitless possibilities. You can fly, breath underwater, travel to distant places, relive yesterday, or get scared out of your sleep. The fantastic invades the realistic, and the familiar becomes the unfamiliar becomes the outright bizarre. The artists of the Enrichment Center wrote the play Of These Dreams based on their own dreams. They created the props and costumes, and used them for their ensemble one act play. Scene 1 (no photos) is The Sleeper, a reoccurring dream of James'. Scene 2 is Luchadors-- based on Jose Miguel's dream. Scene 3 is Joe's Store which is based on the dreams of Joseph and Carolina. Scene 4, Camping, is Junior's dream. Scene 5 is Oscar's dream Gone Fishing. Scene 6 is Sophia's dream In Old Mexico. Scene 7 is The Sleeper 2...the reoccurring dream. Further scene descriptions can be found in a blog.
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Creative Literacy class (5 Fotos)
We have a new component here at the EC that I like to call Creative Literacy... What is creative literacy? Becoming literate in a creative way... using the literacy we've learned in a creative way... creating a literacy we can use...creating literature with our newly created literacy. That's what. Our man Jason is the Teech with the groovy burns.
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What's happenin' (7 Fotos)
Um...just what's happenin'...
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The Fair (5 Fotos)
Once a year, in the dog days of the Central Valley summer heat wave, "Friends Helping Friends" Day at the Merced County Fair rolls around. We go, we sweat, we tour, we sweat, we eat, we sweat, we dance, and then we send two agile staff to chase down the Bus to stop and pick us up so we can go home. After rehydrating over the weekend, we speak fondly of our memories of the day...
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Library (7 Fotos)
This is usually Katie's gig. A walk across the park to the library almost always results in books being checked out for Drama Club "research". That's how we learned about set models, greek theatre and Sappho, period costumes, etc. Unfortunately, the library doesn't always credit the EC with returning ALL of its books, so we documented one such outing as proof.
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Bowling (11 Fotos)
Once a month, we get on the Bus and set sail for what someone calls the next "cow pond" over (what a heifer:-)) to indulge in the pleasant endeavor of heaving (what feels like) a 50lb ball down a narrow gulley to mow down a group of unsuspecting and completely innocent bowling pins. While other programs go bowling, no one bowls like the EC bowling team. We arrive "en masse"-- a noisy, laughing, motley crew of 20-25. We take up 4 lanes and 5 tables, order so many lunches from the counter that they're unable to serve anyone else, and drive other bowlers away with our competetive cheering for who's "up". The EC version of "hey, batter-batter-batter" is the 5 people on Katie's team calling out "Yadi! Yadi! Yadi!" (to encourage Yadi) while Robert's team is calling out "Robert! Robert! Robert!" (to encourage Robert). The result is pure melee-- unadulterated joy expressed through primal chant... and we bowl pretty good, too.
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Dances (12 Fotos)
Some programs are great at advocacy, some are great at community integration, some work at finding and or making jobs for the peeps. While all the other programs are doin' their thing, the Enrichment Center is doin' our thing...we make art and music, we wax poetic and apologetic, we levitate and educate, and we party. That's right. Everyday after lunch at the Enrichment Center, while the boombox is blasting and booties are shaking before the next class, we're planning the next party for our population. Care to get down?
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Theater Classes / Drama Club (8 Fotos)
Under the gentle dictatorship of Theater Arts instructor Katie Young, the Enrichment Center's "theater dept." is flourishing. She runs rehearsals everyday: they start with some yoga, a dash of vocal warm-up, and then they dive in. The following photos are from the quieter group-- the puppet masters. I've also included our promo pic for our play "The Tragic Tale of Paloma and Joaquin". Introduction to Greek Theatre has 3 pics, as well.
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mehhh-- mreeeez (9 Fotos)
Memories, get it? Found these on my camera. Jimmy's last day, and the next...and the next.
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The Tragic Faery Tale of Paloma and Joaquin (10 Fotos)
These photos are from the first performance of the play on May 10, 2007. All photos were taken by Jack Bland for the Merced Sun-Star. He was cool enough to give us a disc of images. Thanks, Jack!
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Visual Arts Classes (10 Fotos)
These are some photos of one of the classes our Visual Arts instructor Robert Garcia has been leading. The first group of photos is of clients learning a lesson in blind contour. It was interesting to walk into the classroom and find the client-artists sitting around a table blindfolded. I quickly looked around the room for the firing squad, and then, realizing it was just a Blind Contour class, ran back to my office to get my camera. The second group of photos is a lesson using charcoal. Everyone tends to bear the evidence of having used charcoal by the end of a lesson...a smudge here, a streak there, and in Koi's case, bodypaint. However, on this day, JoseMiguel, encouraged to "smell" his paper by a mischevious individual, gets too close, and wears it.
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Arts Center Show - Dec 06 (15 Fotos)
The Enrichment Center artists are currently showing their work at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center on the First Floor. The MMAC's hours are Monday thru Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm, and Saturday, 10:00-2:00. The show includes individual works in addition to work from two group projects. The "Mona Lisa" Project was completed under the tutelage of former Visual Arts instructor Jimmy McCullough. 2 of the 5 canvases completed in that project are being shown. There are also 5 canvases included from the "James' Portrait" Project completed under our new Visual Arts instructor Robert Garcia. If you're in Merced, CA anytime soon, check us out. The art in the other 3 galleries ain't bad either.
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