BAM to Double Down on Kids Programming

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, known for its adventurous offerings across cultural disciplines, like “Red, black & GREEN: a blues” (a recent show about black environmentalists) and Ivo van Hove's “Roman Tragedies” (an epic created by merging three Shakespearean plays), is more than doubling its programming for children and families. The academy's roll-out of its redoubled efforts will begin Jan. 19 at the Fisher building with a celebration that includes storytelling, poetry and puppetry workshops. A three-year campaign to raise $15 million to finance family/education programs is also in the works. The academy's ambitions include building on existing school performances and programs, while starting a film festival for teenagers and hosting family concerts and five international theater, dance, and storytelling productions.

Among the upcoming offerings: the Canadian company Théâtre Tout à Trac's presentation of “Alice in Wonderland” on Jan. 26 and 27;  the “Big Screen Bash” festival of films from New York filmmakers ages 13-18, on April 20 and 21; and “In the Garden,” a production by Spain's Teatro Paraiso Antzerkia from Spain and Belgium's Théâtre de la Guimbarde  designed for theater-goers ages 1 to 4, from May 3-5. The BAMkids Film Festival will also return, on Feb. 2 and 3, with 75 international feature length films and shorts and related events.

The academy's newest theater, the Richard B. Fisher building at 321 Ashland Place, will play host to many of the events. Unveiled in June, the renovated hall is the first addition to the academy's campus since 1987. Its opening signals the cultural renaissance in the area designated as the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District and the academy's own ambitions to reach out to the surrounding community. The academy currently sends artists into the schools, hosts after-school programs and serves about 28,000 public school childre n annually. Some of the BAMfamily programs, aimed at children 1 to 18, are free. All tickets are $20 or less.

“Our mission altogether is to be the quintessential New York cultural home for artists and ideas,” Karen Brooks Hopkins, the academy's president said in a recent interview. “The new building has given us a focal point that allows us to work more directly with families. We have a very robust family community in downtown Brooklyn. We have so much diversity, in terms of ethnicity and age, and this is a cohort we want.”