Yesterday was an amazing afternoon. The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs invited a small group of AMP students to perform at “Elevate” on Broad Street in Downtown Atlanta on October 27, 2012. The street festival of arts included dancing by French dance company Pierre Rigal, mural painting open to the public, food trucks and of course, music by the students of the Atlanta Music Project.

What I found so cool about this event was that our students got to spend an afternoon around art, both as part of the show and also as part of the audience. When they first arrived they joined the general public in some mural painting. So much so that some of our students started getting their concert clothes dirty.

Following the mural painting, they took the stage to perform for the crowd. See the videos below for the footage.

AMP shared the performance stage (aka Broad Street) with the Pierre Rigal Dance Company, a highly-regarded group from France that performs all over the world. The Dancers from Pierre Rigal invited everyone, including our students to dance with them in the street. Of course, our students loved it. Check out the short video below of AMP and Pierre Rigal Dance Company, gettin’ down!

The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs and several other partners are working to revitalize this part of downtown Atlanta, and they’re using art as one of the main vehicles for this development. I’m thrilled that AMP was able to be a small part of Elevate yesterday.

Thank you to Organizer & Curator, Courtney Hammond, and to the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs for having us!

For more great pictures of this afternoon of art, please visit the photo album on our Facebook page, here. Video footage is below: