To truly revel in crawfish, jambalaya, live jazz and blues
music—all at the same time—you’d normally have to travel
1,400 miles to New Orleans. But this Saturday, you can find them right
here in the Old Pueblo at Hotel Congress’ Third Annual Night of New
Orleans.
Night of New Orleans—which started as a way to support music
programs affected by Hurricane Katrina by bringing Cajun flavors and
swampy sounds to the desert—is helping a local cause this year:
Opening Minds Through the Arts.
OMA uses the arts to teach math, science, reading, writing and
social studies to elementary- and middle-schoolers in Tucson. By
getting kids out of their chairs and putting violins, paintbrushes and
scripts into the hands that once held only No. 2 pencils, the program
expands developing minds and helps students find something they enjoy
about school, according to Donn Poll, the executive director of
OMA.
“We see so many kids who come into kindergarten and first-grade and
just don’t like school,” says Poll. “Their imagination wasn’t captured
by it. But when the arts are in school, we see that kids who have a
language barrier, or kids who maybe didn’t have a good breakfast or
have other issues from home, can move right past those issues that used
to keep them from having a good school experience, and they get right
into school right away.”
The student achievement program works with more than 50 artists,
including theater-arts performers, visual artists, instrumentalists and
opera performers, from local organizations like the Invisible Theatre
Company, the Tucson Museum of Art, the University of Arizona School of
Music and Arizona Opera. The organization brings artists into
classrooms at 41 elementary schools and three middle schools twice a
week; the program’s curriculum is also incorporated into daily
lessons.
“I’m really excited to be working with a program that is so powerful
in helping kids like school,” Poll says. “We reach about 19,000 kids.
We have a big impact.”
In this time of budget crises, OMA is looking to the community for
continued support.
“With the schools having such budget pressure, we are really working
hard to have people support OMA by making contributions to the
foundation,” says Poll, who has been with OMA for a year and a
half.
With the help of Hotel Congress, OMA may make an even bigger impact.
David Slutes, the entertainment director at Hotel Congress, says the
decision to funnel the funds from the Night of New Orleans into the
local arts organization came from Tucson’s favorite musical
philanthropist, Calexico frontman Joey Burns.
“As we were kicking around the idea,” says Slutes, “Joey Burns from
Calexico called me and said, ‘Have you heard of this program?’ and he
turned me on to Opening Minds Through the Arts.”
Hotel Congress’ decision to support OMA adds to the laundry list of
community partnerships that have made the program so successful in the
first place.
“The great folks at Club Congress recognize the power of the arts,
because they deal with the arts, and they like to think that the arts
play a big role across the community,” Poll says. “When the opportunity
came … we said, ‘That’s delightful,’ because it lets people who go to
Club Congress know about OMA, and it also lets us connect with our own
people and say, ‘Hey, go to Club Congress, and have a good time.’ It’s
another great community partnership.”
Of course, in addition to helping out a good cause, the event will
offer up a fine night of music and cuisine.
Jazz and blues performances from The Dixie Cats, Crawdaddy-O and
Tony and the Torpedoes will bring the New Orleans spirit to the ears of
guests (and all lighting and sound will be solar-powered), while a menu
of boiled shrimp, jambalaya, Abita beer on tap and more will bring the
zesty Cajun flavor at the Cup Café.
Hotel Congress is even having 300 pounds of live crawfish flown in
for the boil, which, if last year’s event offers any clue, will go fast
here in the relatively Cajun- and Creole-cooking-deprived Sonoran
desert.
The bottom line, in addition to supporting Opening Minds Through the
Arts? “It’s cheap, and it’s fun,” Slutes says.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
This is just one more amazing thing that the folks at Hotel Congress have done for the community. We on the OMA Foundation Board of Directors are so delighted to have been chosen as the organization to benefit from this great event.
I had dinner at Maynard’s the other night and it was true to the wonderful standards that have been set at the Cup Cafe’. We really enjoyed it.
Thank you, Hotel Congress.