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.

Hope U Talent Showcased

In September Hope University had a fall Talent Showcase. There were singers and dancers, guitar and violin players, we had a fashion show, a drama skit and so much more. Here we can see Mikki, Lori, Cindy and Cathy performing a drama piece. Our drama teacher Shelley RuggThorp has been helping the students with improvisation and projection.
Next is a sampling of items from our Hope U boutique. You can see cards with original student
artwork, colorful hand sewn pincushions both made in teacher Michele Vavonese's art classes and hand knitted items from teacher Sandra D. Carter's knitting classes all for sale. Also in the Talent Showcase we had a fashion show to showcase some of the hand made items available in our boutique. You can see Cindy wearing a hat that she knitted herself and a scarf knitted by another student. Karen is wearing a matching T-shirt and tote decorated with our students original hand carved linoleum block prints. The show as a great success!

Student Artwork Chosen

Here is Hope University student Jim Lin next to his linoleum block print entitled 'Lanterns of the Moon'. Jim's piece was chosen for the CORE 3: Defining Ourselves exhibit at the 2nd City Council Gallery and Performance Space in Long Beach, California. Jim created this work in one of Hope University's studio art classes taught by Shelley RuggThorp.

Knitting at Hope

Here are two students, Tanette T. and Lori S. Both of them are knitting! They are both in the knitting classes at Hope University. Tanette has made a hat and a scarf. Lori has made several baby hats, washcloths and baby blankets. She has even knitted a baby sweater. "I just love to knit!" Says Lori S.