Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts Hosts An Open House 2/23

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, whose alumni include Natalie Portman, Mariah Carey, playwright Michele Lowe (whose Map Of Heaven just premiered at the Denver Theater Center, and who won the 2010 Francesca Primus Prize from the American Theater Critics Association), Jordan Leeds, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Seth Rudetsky and Jane Monheit, will hold its next Open House on Wednesday February 23 from 11 AM to 2 PM at Usdan Center's magnificent 200-acre woodland campus in the Huntington area of Long Island.

Usdan Center is now preparing an array of new programs and calendar options for the summer of 2011, Usdan's 44th season. To introduce the new programs, as well as Usdan's many continuing programs, the renowned Center will present four more Open Houses on Sundays March 27 and May 15, 2011; and Wednesdays: February 23 and April 20, 2011. The times for each date are 11 AM to 2 PM at Usdan Center, 185 Colonial Springs Road in Wheatley Heights (Huntington), Long Island.

Open houses give prospective students and their families a chance to tour the Center, and to obtain information and answers from the staff about Usdan's more than 40 programs in theater, music, dance, visual arts, creative writing, nature and ecology, and chess. Families who cannot attend an Open House may make an appointment to visit on another date from Monday to Friday. Please call (631) 643-7900, email openhouse@usdan.com, or visit www.usdan.com.

Usdan Center continues to expand its programs, and to explore new areas of arts education. New programs in 2011 will include: Video Game Art and Design (Grades 4 to 12), an introduction to the creation and development of non-violent video games; Introduction to Studio Art: a 4-week introduction, for grades 7-9, to two-dimensional and three-dimensional media; Portfolio Preparation Track (Grades 9-12), which will include a student-selected Art major, plus Painting, Life Drawing, and portfolio development sessions. In addition, Usdan has expanded its choice of 4-week majors for children of all ages. New 4-week majors are available in music, dance, visual arts, nature and ecology, and chess.

A special feature at Usdan Center is its Festival Concerts series at its on-site McKinley Ampitheater. Singers and dancers from current Broadway shows, as well as ensembles like the Jose Limon Company and Tokyo String Quartet, Metropolitan Opera soprano Monica Yunus, jazz stars Arturo O'Farrill and Jimmy Heath and many more artists come to perform.

Usdan Center has introduced the arts to more than 50,000 Tri-State Area children since its founding in 1968. The Center is open to all young people from age 6 to 18. Usdan's program features more than 40 seven-week programs in music, dance, theater, visual arts, writing, nature & ecology, and chess. No audition is needed for most programs - rather, admission is based on an expression of interest in the arts. Each summer, 1,500 students are transported to the Center in air-conditioned buses each day. One-third of Usdan's students attend on scholarship. Although the mission of the Center is for every child to establish a relationship with the arts, the unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to arts careers. Alumni include members of Broadway shows and major music, theater, and dance ensembles such as the Boston Pops and the New York City Ballet.

In addition to its regular programs, Usdan offers special opportunities for advanced high school-age performing and visual artists. These include Music Staff Internships, a Summer Ballet Intensive, and a program of immersion in the visual arts and college preparation for selected high school students. It is called the Usdan Center Visual Arts Portfolio Preparation Track. Usdan Center is an agency of the UJA-Federation of New York.