Beyond the stage: Marie Rader Series brings artists into the Rowan community

For pianist, NPR host and thought leader Lara Downes, bringing music to an audience is just one component of her mission-driven work. She also wants to know the people and communities she's visiting—and find ways to connect with them beyond the concert hall.

"As artists, we move in a world where we're kind of constrained to rooms where there are people who already know what the art is and who have chosen to come," Downes said. "If you want to move outside of that space and get new people excited and engaged about what art is, you have to go [to where they are]."

Before performing along with Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning musician and cultural historian Rhiannon Giddens at Rowan on October 30, Downes did just that—visiting classrooms, engaging students in conversations about America's past and future, and inviting them to share personal responses to the ideas of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” through The Declaration Project, an ongoing national archive.

Connecting in the classroom

Two weeks before the performance with Giddens, Downes and Marie Rader Series Artistic Director Debbie Shapiro (pictured left, addressing a Rowan class) visited a variety of classrooms with students studying public history, spoken word, theatre & dance and a creative writing course offered to Camden-based high school students through Rowan's dual-credit program. 

Downes and Shapiro’s goal was to engage with the students while discussing our nation’s relationship to and understanding of American music and the 250-year-old language from the Declaration of Independence.

"This age group…that is actually stepping into adulthood and power and influence and participation, is kind of the most important as a time capsule of where we are," Downes said.

A week later, she returned to campus to photograph and recorded some of the students, capturing their individual reflections for the project. 

“Here at Rowan, there's really just such a clear and dedicated effort not only to serve this community, but to expand this community and also, I think, to reflect this community. And all of those things are really vital,” she said.

That kind of engagement is exactly what Shapiro works to foster through the Marie Rader series. By bringing artists into classrooms and other campus spaces, the series creates opportunities for students across academic disciplines to encounter creative perspectives they might not otherwise experience.

"We wouldn't be doing this work if we didn't think that artistic practice is an expression of being human. And so any human should be involved in that," Shapiro said. "This isn't about delineating between arts versus non-arts or any other field of study. The idea is that this is about all of us."

Sounds Like America at Rowan

During Downes' visits, Shapiro observed students change.

"We saw a complete transformation in students from walking in and telling them all about us and our work to handing it over to them," she said.

For Alexa Byrd (pictured left, speaking with Downes), a freshman musical theatre major who volunteered to be part of the Declaration Project, the experience of meeting and working with Downes sounded intimidating, but she found it easy to connect and share her thoughts.  

“I was a little bit scared… but because [Downes] knew what she was doing, it was actually really easy to find a connection,” Byrd said. “I think it's just really cool that somebody who is a professional in this wants to come to a college and get insight from college students.”

Sounds Like America, the culmination of Downes’ Rowan residency, was inspired by her work for NPR’s America in Pursuit series and served as the second of five distinct artist engagements within the Marie Rader Series’ Life & Liberty Season.

More than 450 audience members watched and listened to a musical conversation from Downes and Giddens on the Pfleeger Concert Hall stage, which opened with a performance of Paul Simon’s American Tune and a story behind the slightly changed lyrics, sung by Giddens. 

What followed was a journey through time and place, through stories and songs, with interludes of videos from The Declaration Project -- including some of the Rowan students’ voices Downes recorded during her residency (all participating students’ recordings will be archived here). 

Through residencies, classroom visits, community engagement and performances, the Marie Rader Series creates opportunities for students and audiences to encounter artists in new ways—not just as performers on a stage, but as collaborators, mentors and catalysts for conversation.

As Downes put it, "My point is we all are [artists]. Art is just another way to express yourself. Here I am. I express myself at the piano. Your turn. What do you have to say?"