If you had wanted to count it up, Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga-related programs Thursday would have included at least 12 students drawing, 11 preschoolers rolling, 10 adults designing, nine dancers plié-ing, eight swimmers laughing, seven seniors potting, six musicians bowing, four actors acting, three toddlers crawling, two children drumming and a workshop about Bessie Smith.
To launch the organization's $2 million 2010 annual campaign, with its theme of "The Arts Are for All," the organization displayed the scope of its reach Thursday by highlighting events at more than a dozen venues.
"They're very proactive, and they engage people in the community," campaign chairwoman Patti Frierson said of Allied Arts' 14 cultural partners. "We wanted to show concrete examples of that so people would know all the different populations that benefit from the arts."
Throughout the day, the agencies served people from toddlers to seniors and included schoolchildren, people with special needs and adult learners.
Eight school-age students started their day with a 30-minute water ballet class in a 95-degree pool at Orange Grove Center. Although there was giggling and shouts of "Yes!" and "Oh, baby!" the students also improved muscle memory and coordination in ways they couldn't outside the pool, according to recreation coordinator Brandy Wilson.
The students have taken weekly classes for about a year from Cortney Mild, a professional with Chattanooga Ballet, an Allied Arts agency.
Meanwhile, 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds at Siskin Children's Institute in East Brainerd were practicing rolls, marches, bunny hops and bear walks with Laurel Shastri, associate director of Ballet Tennessee, an Allied Arts agency.
She said the weekly, 30-minute creative movement classes work on the children's locomotor skills, which they use by moving across the floor, and non-locomotor skills, which they use by moving in place.
"They're working on their physical motor skills as well as listening, following directions and (gaining) musicality," Ms. Shastri said.
At noon, scores of schoolchildren sat attentively in bleachers and on the floor as homeschooled brothers Andrew and Damon Miller played the principal characters in the Chattanooga Theatre Centre's Youth Theatre presentation of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."
The presentation was one of two that three different casts will present on eight school days of shows, according to Youth Theatre director Maria Chattin-Carter.
Not only does Allied Arts money fund 16 percent of the CTC's operating budget, but through funds given to the Hamilton County Schools system it provides money for transportation for some schools to attend the shows, said producing director George Quick.
"If you took it away," he said of the funding, "we'd really be up the creek."
Without Allied Arts money, Coyee Langston may not have been showing East Ridge Elementary School fourth-grade students how to draw an angel fish. Support from the organization, with additional money from the school's PTA, allows her to stay all year.
"It's so important to have them," she said.
"There's a gratification of giving, of being able to share dance with other people. ... It's been interesting to see how it correlates with dance class."
-- Cortney Mild, a professional with Chattanooga Ballet, on water ballet classes with Orange Grove students
"We want to tap into their creativity and engage the children on a level where they're having fun, but they're also using their bodies and their minds and stretching in all of those areas."
-- Laurel Shastri, associate director of Ballet Tennessee, on working with Siskin Children's Institute
"If you took it away, we'd really be up the creek. Personally, it was one of things that attracted me to Chattanooga and the Theatre Centre. I thought that was pretty terrific for a city this size."
-- George Quick, Chattanooga Theatre Centre producing director, on the annual money his organization gets from Allied Arts
"We do a lot of abstract work, which gives them the opportunity to experiment and be creative without having to make something (overly) detailed and feel good about what they're doing."
-- Coyee Langston, art teacher at East Ridge Elementary School, whose presence there largely is funded by Allied Arts
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Something's Brewing
College students and others hang out at the Something's Brewing coffeehouse in Conway on Thursday night.