UNCSA's ArtistCorps celebrates 10 years of service

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is celebrating the 10th year of its community outreach program, ArtistCorps.

The initiative connects UNCSA students with local schools and senior services, where they gain instructional experience and share the arts.

Director of Community Engagement Rebecca Nussbaum helped start the program in 2014. She’s overseen more than 83,000 hours of service by nearly 200 students.

“It allows them to see the arts as something that’s not just on a practice room or on a stage,” she says. ”It’s in the community. It’s something that is living and breathing and has a force of its own.”

José Sequeira Martínez is a first-year master’s student from Costa Rica and one of this year’s 31 ArtistCorps participants. The program has given him the opportunity to teach music to students from pre-kindergarten through high school.

“It’s really special, especially coming from a place so far away, how much I’ve been able to connect with students,” he says. “Whether it is that we share heritage of some sort, or people from different backgrounds, there’s always a way to connect and that is very special, especially if it is through music and arts.”

UNCSA students have until May 30 to apply for next year’s ArtistCorps cohort.