Young Audiences has announced two winning schools in the NRG Energy Creatively Green Award competition, sponsored by NRG Energy, Inc.: Chesapeake Public Charter School and Port Towns Elementary School!

Each winning school will host its own NRG Creatively Green Family Arts Festival for its school and community members with services worth up to $7,000. The two-and-a-half hour family arts festivals will consist of a performance by Young Audiences Blues musician Curtis Blues focusing on the importance of protecting the environment; hands‐on art making workshops led by a variety of Young Audiences teaching artists that promote environmental sustainability, from creating plastic monster puppets with old milk jugs to learning about kinetic energy through movement; and a community art‐making project to be played, displayed, or shared during the event. Each school has also garnered the support of a number of community organizations that will also be participating in the festivals.

The festivals will be held in May 2015 but Young Audiences artists are already hard at work creating family fun performances and workshops for the events. Artists recently gathered at the Young Audiences offices to participate in the Irvine Nature Center’s “Artistry of Nature” professional development workshop. Artists learned how to engage children in their environment, and even braved January’s snow and ice to explore the natural world right outside the office.

Congratulations to the winning schools!