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.