2005-3-6
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith
Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,
serves as a national home for the performing arts. Now the center
wants to do more to bring those arts to children.
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VOICE ONE:
Last month the Kennedy Center
announced plans to spend one hundred twenty-five million dollars on
performing arts education. The program will be developed over a
five-year period. The center will receive both government and
private money for this effort.
Plans include opening a new Family Theater at the Kennedy Center
at the end of this year. Performances from there will be seen later
in schools around America.
VOICE TWO:
The president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, Michael Kaiser, announced the expanded education program.
Mister Kaiser says the Kennedy Center has been working on developing
its program with officials of more than one hundred schools. Mister
Kaiser says that if people are trained in the arts while they are
young, they will be interested as adults.
A major research organization came out with a report last month
about public policy toward the arts. The Rand Corporation says
interest in the arts is of more than just economic value; it helps
create better citizens. The report calls for placing greater
importance on creating demand for the arts. It says the way to do
that is to introduce more people, especially young people, to
experiences with the arts.
VOICE ONE:
Educators say children who study the arts are more likely to do
well in other subjects and to become student leaders. Yet in recent
years many schools have reduced arts education.
During the nineteen nineties, research found that less than half
of middle school students in the United States studied the arts. And
some of the programs they did have were not very good.
In nineteen ninety-seven, an agency of the Department of
Education studied thousands of eighth graders. The National
Assessment of Education said the students were not as well trained
in arts as they should have been.
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VOICE TWO:
The Kennedy Center will develop shows to be presented to young
people around the nation. Two organizations will finance that
effort. They are Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theater
International.
First, children will take part in musical shows. The shows will
be presented in the Family Theater that the Kennedy Center plans to
open this December. Then the productions will travel to schools
around the United States. Local children, not theater professionals,
will produce the shows. Educators will examine the effects of taking
part in the productions on the learning skills of the performers.
VOICE ONE:
The government is to finance the new theater for ten million
dollars. To create it, one hundred twenty seats will be added to an
existing theater. There will be a new public waiting area and
dressing rooms for performers.
Some other new Kennedy Center projects are electronic. For
example, a new Web site will offer jazz music and tell about its
history. This site is to be ready in two years.
Another new site on the Internet will present a history of
performing arts. It will offer performances and stories about the
performances. That site is to be ready in three years.
VOICE TWO:
The Kennedy Center already presents many shows for children at
the center and in schools. Its president, Michael Kaiser, says the
additional programs will bring the Kennedy Center education budget
to forty million dollars. Center officials say this will be the
largest amount spent for education by any American arts
organization.
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VOICE ONE:
The Kennedy Center is a memorial
to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the thirty-fifth president of the
United States. It is also the official national performing arts
center. Each year about two million people see music, dance, drama
and other performances at the Kennedy Center.
And three million people come just to see the big white building
itself. In the Hall of States, for example, they pass beneath the
flags of all the American states and territories. In the Hall of
Nations are the flags of more than one hundred sixty countries.
Visitors also see the works of art and other gifts that more than
forty countries have given to the Kennedy Center. And people can
learn about the life of President Kennedy and listen to some of his
speeches.
VOICE TWO:
Efforts to build a cultural center
in Washington began before John Kennedy was elected president in
nineteen sixty. In nineteen fifty-eight, President Dwight Eisenhower
signed the National Cultural Center Act. He said the United States
needed a place to show its artistic successes.
One of the earliest problems was finding a place for the
building. Directors of the center chose an area on the edge of the
Potomac River called Foggy Bottom. Some people worried that the
building would sink into the soft ground. It hasn't yet.
VOICE ONE:
Another problem was money. The cultural center needed to collect
millions of dollars in private gifts. The government promised to
give an amount equal to the money raised.
After President Kennedy took office in nineteen sixty-one, he
campaigned for the national cultural center. His wife, Jacqueline,
helped raise money for the center. So did Mamie Eisenhower, the wife
of the former president.
On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President
Kennedy was shot to death as he rode in an open car in Dallas,
Texas. Congress soon declared the cultural center a memorial to him.
VOICE TWO:
Still, it was not easy to get enough money for the Kennedy
Center. Center officials had to have more than fifteen million
dollars by June thirtieth, nineteen sixty-five. If that did not
happen, then they would not receive money from the government. They
would not be able to build the center. Most of June passed, and the
campaign still had not reached its goal.
Then on June twenty-ninth the people of Italy gave more than one
million dollars worth of marble to build the center. Other countries
also gave money. These gifts rescued the project.
VOICE ONE:
Building finally began on the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in nineteen sixty-seven. Four years later, the
completed Kennedy Center stood along the Potomac River. Architect
Edward Durrell Stone had designed a simple and beautiful building.
It cost about seventy million dollars.
Opening night at the Kennedy Center was September eighth,
nineteen seventy-one. Guests heard a new musical work composed and
conducted by Leonard Bernstein. He wrote "Mass" to honor President
Kennedy. Here, from Bernstein's "Mass," is "Gloria Tibi."
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VOICE TWO:
Some of the world's finest artists have appeared at the Kennedy
Center over the years.
Classical musicians like pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinist
Isaac Stern have played there. So have jazz performers like Benny
Goodman and Sarah Vaughan.
These days, Placido Domingo, one of the world's best known
tenors, sometimes sings there. He is also the general director of
the Washington National Opera, which performs at the Kennedy Center
Opera House.
VOICE ONE:
Long before the Kennedy Center was built, President Eisenhower
said America needed a place to show its artistry. Now the center
wants to help build more interest in the arts into the lives of
young America.
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty
Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS
AMERICA in VOA Special English.