MANSFIELD – Children will have the opportunity to explore both art and music in a hands-on environment at the next Teddy Bear Concert at the Renaissance Theatre.
Accompanied by Mansfield Symphony cellist Lindsay Brown and the Mansfield Art Center Education staff, the Renaissance presents “Finger-Painted Sound” on Sunday, Jan. 22. During this event, children will explore mood and music featuring several works of art and varying musical selections.
“Essentially, music and art both essentially work to tell a story about human emotion and experience,” said Colleen Cook, director of marketing and communications at the Renaissance. “This concert will explore the correlation between the two. Some sound feels sad, some artwork makes you feel sad or angry or happy, this event will be looking at all of those emotions and moods and how art and music can cast those moods.”
Cook said Teddy Bear Concerts should be thought of more as an interactive event versus a traditional concert. The content of the Teddy Bear Concerts is entirely original, written by artistic director Michael Thomas and coordinated by director of operations Chelsie Thompson.
For this particular concert there will be actual finger painting, and Cook cautioned parents to keep that in mind when dressing their children for the day. Typically the Teddy Bear Concerts are geared towards children ages 2 to 10 years old.
“From my experience, younger children are much more adept at perceiving emotions and moods than adults,” Cook said. “As a public school music teacher, playing music for kids made them feel emotions. I can’t tell you how many times I had kids weeping or laughing because kids are uninhibited about emotions and they’re perceptive and receptive to that sort of thing.”
Cook noted the Renaissance is also mindful of gearing its educational programming to be more sensory-friendly for children on the autism spectrum.
“This is the perfect place because they can interact if they want, or we have a sensory play area in the lobby where we’ll be live-streaming the concert, so kids can be involved while they play with blocks or doing something sensory to be who they are and be comfortable.”
Inspired by the Kennedy Center’s family programming, the Renaissance Teddy Bear Concerts allow children an up-close experience with symphonic instruments, live acting, and basic musical concepts. To provide the most engaging performance possible, the Teddy Bear series can accommodate only 100 concert-goers and their very favorite teddy bears, so these stage-on-stage seats fill quickly.
Thanks to donors Don and Sharon Granter, ticket prices have been reduced to $5 per person for the Teddy Bear Concerts this season, which are presented as a part of the Mechanics Bank Education Series.
“Anybody can enjoy it,” Cook said. “It’s a great way to spend a weekend with your kids.”
For more information on this event or for tickets, visit www.mansfieldtickets.com.
