Community is essential to The Creative Living Room ™.

We are committed to creating avenues for individuals and families to connect to the greater community in a variety of ways including collaborative partnerships with other businesses and artists in Swarthmore and the surrounding areas.

Our community programming includes:

• class presentations where students can participate and perform for family and friends
• the “Creative Family Performance Series” and “First Fridays” as venues for performing artists to present their work to the community
• our “Creative Artists Gallery”, exhibiting artists and students work.
• birthday Party Entertainment

Other offerings to serve our community will include:

• Open Play Space – children can come and enjoy supervised unstructured play in a safe, fun space
• Tea & Talk – a time and place for Moms and caregivers to gather while their children play
• Special Needs Support Group – a support group for parents and caregivers of children with special needs
• Pillows & Pajamas Storytime – one night a week children bring their favorite bedtime stories and the staff or special guest volunteers will read to the children
• Community Mural Project – continue what Philadelphia has started
• Kids Go Green – Green Team Task Force where kids help keep the community stay clean and green
• ARTS SALON – artists of all disciplines come together to mix, mingle and co-create through an exchange of arts mediums.
• Rental Space – for rehearsals, and complimentary activities fitting to the center

Outreach

Outreach to serve those less fortunate is an important aspect of our mission. The Creative Living Room ™ is dedicated to raising awareness to help individuals and organizations in our community through good works and fundraisers. A portion of the profits from registration and events will be utilized to pay for deserving students’ class tuition for participation in programs.

• Other Outreach Ideas to serve our community are to:
• donate a portion of the proceeds from the Theatre Program classes and performances to a charity that students choose
• build partnerships that support sister organizations, such as The Nia Center, that bring the arts into the lives of disadvantaged children and families
• offer scholarships for classes to talented students and those serious about studying and or pursuing a career in the arts
• create arts benefit events to raise money for particular charities
• raise money for outreach where teachers go off-site offering classes and workshops at schools and arts centers
• give a portion of ticket sales from our professional performance series to pay for low income families to attend a children’s show

Join us in supporting our community and sharing the gifts we all have as members of the global family.

Culture

The Creative Living Room ™ celebrates the diversity in our neighborhoods. Our classes, programs, performances and festivals will bring families in touch with many different cultures. Swarthmore is a unique cultural hub in Delaware county and home to a host of immigrants and ethnicities and many more, bringing their rich heritage with them from other countries or through their ancestry.

We believe that the act of experiencing other cultures:

• fosters a thirst for learning
• builds awareness both of the self and of others
• cultivates the ability to understand situations and people from many dimensions
• gives the opportunity to embrace cultural differences as well as differences found in daily living
• sparks an interest in languages and travel
• develops an appreciation of arts from other countries

Cultural courses which we will offer to enrich both children and adults will include but not be limited to: Indian Dance, African Drumming, Latin American, Chinese and Japanese Arts etc. We feel that truly experiencing culture on a first hand basis allows us to share our humanity on a multitude of levels.

The Creative Living Room ™ takes you places without having to go very far.