Statements
Mission
Bravo Creative Arts Center, as an arts education organization, is dedicated to providing inspiring opportunities for area children and teens to participate in the performing arts and bringing quality, family oriented entertainment to the community. Since Bravo's opening 18 years ago, thousands of youth have been served in the areas of dance, music, and theatre. The opportunities at Bravo are open to youth regardless of talent level or experience. Although Bravo works with many talented youth and enjoys a reputation for staging professional quality productions, Bravo's mission is not just about improving performance skills. It's also about working with a child who lacks confidence and creating an environment that allows him/her to gain the confidence needed to walk to center stage and deliver a line. It's about giving creative youth the opportunity to work as a team to put together a show and then giving them the opportunity to perform for an audience where their gifts, talents, and hard work can be appreciated.
Bravo strives to create a supportive and inclusive atmosphere where youth feel safe to explore and take risks, thrive and do tremendous work both on and off stage. The shows that the youth have staged for the mid state area have been well received and been given critical acclaim.
Bravo also stewards one of the largest theatrical costume collections in the country. Over 30,000 costumes are available for creative organizations to rent for a modest amount. During 2023, Bravo costumed over 1,000 students for theatrical productions.
This collection was previously owned by Performance Studios, and has been the primary costume resource for our mid state area, and beyond, for three decades. During the pandemic when this important collection was at risk, Bravo supporters rescued this important collection by raising funds to purchase and volunteering hundreds of hours to relocate and maintain the costumes our community needs for our stages.
Background
Our mid state Music City area is home to highly creative children and teens, yet the Tennessee Arts Commission lists our area as having the state's highest rate of youth going underserved in the arts. Bravo Creative Arts Center was founded in 2006 to address this issue and to build community through the arts. It was determined that Bravo's arts education facility should be opened just south of Nashville to be positioned to serve the largest population of these underserved youth. Bravo was a 'let's build it and see if they come' endeavor...and come they did! Bravo asked the youth in what they were most interested, and it came as no surprise that the performing arts was the answer.It was decided that musical theatre would be the perfect vehicle for bringing arts education to the youth. Musical theatre brings all the arts together (music, dance, acting, design...), can appeal to all types of learners, and engages a variety of creative skills. Because of its collaborative nature, musical theatre is also the perfect way to build community.Bravo's first musical theatre production opened to a packed house at The Factory of Franklin, and there was an immediate need for a larger venue. Partnerships soon developed with The Ensworth School and Father Ryan who have supported the mission of Bravo by affording the youth a performance stage in their beautiful theaters since 2007. Bravo is dedicated to maintaining a quality creative outlet that our area children and teens are proud to call their creative home.
Impact
During the 2023 - 24 Season, Bravo's musical theater program brought four full scale productions to the stages of our partnering theaters: The Ensworth Theater and Father Ryan Center For the Arts. With The Wizard of Oz, Annie, Mary Poppins, and Shrek Bravo was able to cast hundreds of children and teens into the spotlight and bring quality theater to thousands in the Nashville area. By offering year round arts eduction, the youth are provided a creative environment to spend after school hours and receive quality instruction in the areas of music, dance, and acting. Youth are given meaningful opportunities and challenged to work hard, be a team player, and always give their best. The result is not only a successful show, but more importantly... successful young people who have not only discovered and developed their creative talents, but also young people who have learned important life skills by being a part of something greater than self.
In addition to producing live theatre, Bravo now stewards one of the largest theatrical/historical/holiday costume collections in the country. These costumes (previously owned by Nashville's Performance Studios) have served our Tennessee stages for the past three decades. With the assistance of The Frist Foundation, Bravo was able to save this one of a kind collection when it became at risk during the early months of pandemic.
Bravo is dedicated to maintaining this important resource for the creative community of our state. As the performing arts return, these costumes are ready to take the stage and serve thousands of performers and their audiences! During the 23 - 24 school year, 49 mid-state schools were provided costumes for theatrical performances through the Bravo Costume Program.
Needs
Each year, large scale productions are produced featuring hundreds of area children and teens. Past productions include family friendly shows such as Peter Pan, Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Shrek, and more!
A typical production involves 100 youth. The cost to serve 100 youth for the three months of rehearsals, play rights, music, set construction, performance venue rental, promotion, salary for production staff...is $30,000 minimum for each mounted production. Each participant pays an activity fee to help with costs, but this does not begin to cover the total cost of a production. In addition, if the parent of a child that has been cast in a production demonstrates inability to pay..the child will not be turned away. Bravo absorbs the cost...and so scholarship money is needed to help offset the cost. The Bravo Board of Directors realize that to continue to grow and serve more youth, support must be sought and gained from the community.
Funds are also needed to assist with housing and maintaining the 30,000+ costume collection that Bravo stewards for our Tennessee stages.
Each year, thousands of characters come to life thanks to this extensive costume collection.
CEO Statement
Bravo Creative Arts Center provides year round arts education in the areas of theater, music, and dance. The youth of our community are underserved in the arts, and Bravo strives to address this issue by providing quality instruction to hundreds of children and teens each year. Having a regular creative outlet is not just part of a well rounded education - it is essential for a child's emotional health and well being. Producing a show brings the arts together and provides growth opportunities for all varieties of learners. For example, kinesthetic learners engage their bodies through dance, linguistic learners dive into the written and spoken word, spatial learners tackle set and costume design, and musical learners revel in the show's score. Besides being incredibly fun, participating in the performing arts helps young people develop many of the skills necessary for success in today's world including self confidence, literacy, communication, imagination, empathy, self discipline, and critical thinking and problem solving. Bravo's incredible staff works tirelessly to serve our community's creative youth. Staff members are not only dedicated to giving quality instruction that leads to great onstage performances, but also to empowering and encouraging youth to success on the greater stage of life. The teachers take the time to truly know the youth, meet them where they are, and help them to grow. Growing up confident, caring, creative youth has a far reaching impact, and Bravo is fortunate to get to meet and work with so many wonderful young people.
With the recent addition of 30,000 costumes to support arts education and performing arts, Bravo now has the opportunity to meet educators from across the mid state area and to assist them with costuming productions. Having successfully staged 65 productions, Bravo can offer assistance to educators when troubleshooting staging issues, can connect them with groups to share sets/props, and can work toward improving collaboration among the many wonderful schools and organizations that bring the performing arts to stage.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Arts Education |
| Secondary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
The majority of students served by Bravo hail from Davidson and Williamson counties.
Live theatre produced by Bravo is open to the general public, and audience members are primarily from the mid-state area.
The 30,000 costumes stewarded by Bravo are primarily used by the mid-state counties of Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Maury, Dickson, Macon, and Sumner but groups from across the state and from neighboring states, have also been served by Bravo's costume resource.
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Maury |
| TN - Dickson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Macon |
| TN - Sumner |
