Listen to the Sound (Class)

Sound class participants come together in the circle.

Jim and Bradley move to the sound of Sound class.

Instructor Lisa (on left) leads a Sound class activity.

Instructor Lisa LoRusso teaches a class called 'Sound'.  Some of our students have perfect pitch, limited auditory ability, limited vocal ability and difficulty with sound moderation.  This class offers options for these barriers and creates an arena to explore sound, movement and art.  Some of the ways sound is explored in this class are movement correlations to vowel sounds, which helps to center and focus auditory input and spacial awareness.  Another favorite medium are the boom whackers, brightly colored tubes which you 'whack' to create deep resonating sounds that change with the tubes size.  These create a relationship between sound, color and vibration making it an auditory, visual and tactile sound experience.  Another activity is body movement to objects.  Making shapes with the body and vocalizing paired words such as 'sun' while moving the arms big and round like the sun, and 'moon' while creating a crescent shape with the arms.  Clients work in a parallel format as well as in a circle to create individual and group spaces that encourage body, space and auditory awareness.

Guest Artist Tom Walker

Kimmie N. shows off her creation.

Karen L. basks in the simplicity of her metal design.

Tina G. and Michelle E. are proud of their metal sculptures.

 A student explores the play of light and shadow on the metal.

Three metal sculptures.

Tom Walker demonstrates with a jack-o-lantern in metal.

Darren P. and Carol W. concentrate on their designs.

In August we had a guest artist come to Hope University.  His name is Tom Walker and his medium is metal.  He makes sculptures both large and small using metal to create his art.  Tom brought with him some rolls of wire which he cut into smaller lengths.  Each student was given a length of wire with which to work.  He showed the students some examples of shapes to make, like a pair of glasses or a bicycle and talked about how to work with the wire.  It looks almost like sketching in three dimensions! The students really enjoyed working with the wire and having a guest artist come to teach is such a treat!  We are all very thankful to Tom and hope he can come back again to help us create more art.
"I made a dolphin."
Lori Slikker
"I made a penguin and an Orca whale."
Tanette Tuttle
"I made a flower."
K.
"I made a snowman."
Bradley Clayman
"I made a Christmas tree."
Darren Crow
All of the students were inspired by Tom, he really brought out their metal creativity!

A Visit From The Mayor!

Mayor Tate with Hope U students; Margaret K., Tanette T., and Lori S.

Mayor Tate chatting with Hope U student Jason R. as student Amy L. and  Board President Matt Sauer join in.

Lori S. was so happy to meet Mayor Tate!

Hope University Board President Matt Sauer, Hope University Executive Director Jan Reyes and The Mayor of Anaheim Tom Tate.

The Mayor of Anaheim, Tom Tate, came by Hope University for a visit in August.  He had been invited to the Mural Unveiling but was unable to attend though he promised to come by the program and visit with us all on another day.  He kept his promise and we were all so excited to see him.  The Hi-Hopes performed for him and he was able to see the students hard at work on art projects, exploring music and in academic classes.  The students were able to shake his hand and show him around the classrooms here at Hope U.  It made us so proud that Mayor Tate made time in his busy schedule for us.  We really appreciate his interest in our program.  We are looking forward to seeing him and more of his staff soon.  Mayor Tate was so impressed by us that he brought his wife down the next day and meet us.  Thank you Mayor Tate!