Igniting the future

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The Spark Artistic Mentorship Program is an initiative to offer training and development in the performing arts to Black, Indigenous and students of color in the
Great Lakes Bay region of Michigan.

We are committed to building more opportunities for community engagement around access to arts education, and humbly seek partnerships with those who are already in the community participating in this kind of work. We are seeking collaborators and students to engage with us as we continue to grow and expand, building what we hope to be a vibrant community.

A message from our Spark recipients

SPARK Artistic Mentorship Recipients

2021 – Kaden Furtaw

“I attended John Glenn High School In Bay City, where I acquired an interest in drama. I had the opportunity to perform in nine full-length shows at John Glenn, including Tarzan, Pippin, The Addams Family, and many others. While performing in Urinetown, Something Rotten, and Once Upon A Mattress, I won 14 Superior awards and Excellence in Theatre while competing in MIFA one-act competitions. I have also performed at Midland Center For The Arts in their production of Grease and a back up singer for Eric Anthony Johnson. I enjoy singing, dancing, and acting, and when I’m not doing any of those things, I can be found reading a book or watching my favorite television series. After graduation I plan on attending college for a BFA in Musical Theatre. I want to thank the Spark team for this amazing opportunity, I have learned so much and I will forever be grateful. “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” – Oscar Wilde.”

SPARK Artistic Mentorship Recipients

2021 – Alexus Yorch

“I’m a senior at Bay City Central high school. I am very active in the arts department at our school, I have done 4 plays, been in band for 7 years and choir for 4. I plan on attending Albion College with a major in Anthropology, then joining the Peace Corps before I get my masters. Being a woman of color in the arts is very hard and we are often overlooked in favor of our male counterparts. The work that SPARK is doing to empower BIPOC is amazing and I am proud to have been a recipient of their arts scholarship. I have already made so many life-long connections and I can’t wait to see what my future holds in this program.”

Spark Scholarship gives a John Glenn graduate the opportunity to shine

A year after he was awarded $1,000 through the Spark Artistic Mentorship Program, Furtaw is poised to attend Saginaw Valley State University while working part-time as a teacher’s aide in music classes teaching at the Bay City Academy.
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Dancers tap their way to funding a performing arts scholarship

A group of Bay City natives, who each have thriving careers on stages around the country, came together recently to form the Spark Artistic Mentorship Program. On Sept. 12, fundraising for the scholarship kicked off Downtown Shuffle Around, an all-day tap dancing event in Wenonah Park.
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