CSA (Community School of the Arts) Share

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Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty School of the Arts (CSA) was incor­po­rat­ed in 1995 and began pro­vid­ing six class­es of art instruc­tion in the base­ment of the St. John Luther­an Church in Mar­i­on, IN. After see­ing tremen­dous growth, and sev­er­al loca­tion changes, CSA acquired a large down­town build­ing on the cour­t­house square in Marion. 

CSA has grown to serve stu­dents from Grant, Wabash, Black­ford, Delaware, Madi­son, Howard, Hamil­ton, John­son, and Allen Coun­ties, and offers over 100 class­es, a pre-pro­fes­sion­al the­atre com­pa­ny, a vari­ety of pri­vate music lessons, the CSA Arts Acad­e­my — a part­ner­ship with Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools, and the Tuition Schol­ar­ship Pro­gram — a pro­gram for stu­dents need­ing finan­cial assistance. 

Enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include orig­i­nal and Broad­way pro­duc­tions, com­mu­ni­ty art part­ner­ships, and the Stu­dent Per­for­mance Series — pub­lic, pri­vate, and char­ter school per­for­mances. Most recent­ly, in 2021, CSA launched an After School Arts Enrich­ment pro­gram for Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools stu­dents in grades 1 – 4 to pro­vide after-school care and arts edu­ca­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, in August of 2021, CSA acquired the Mar­i­on Civic The­atre build­ing and pro­gram­ming, and launched CSA’s Civic The­atre, con­tin­u­ing the lega­cy of com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven the­atre in Grant County. 

Katie Perez has been the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the orga­ni­za­tion since 2014, co-lead­ing with Artis­tic Direc­tor, Shelly Inskeep. 

Perez described the most reward­ing part of doing busi­ness in Mar­i­on as hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ​“pro­vide high qual­i­ty pro­duc­tions that are at the lev­el of what would be expect­ed in much big­ger cities.” She also said, ​“Being able to oper­ate in Mar­i­on has allowed CSA to expose the arts in so many ways to the com­mu­ni­ty with­out hav­ing to trav­el. In fact, many have trav­eled from those big cities to par­tic­i­pate in class­es. Just being able to make the arts avail­able to Grant Coun­ty is a reward, and Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty deserve these types of oppor­tu­ni­ties.” Perez said dream for the future of the orga­ni­za­tion is to con­tin­ue to expand the impact on the lives of Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty res­i­dents through arts edu­ca­tion and enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ​“The arts are vital in the improve­ment of qual­i­ty of life, and CSA is a trea­sure that even after all these years, many do not real­ize exists.” 

Glo­ria Billings­ley is a The­atre Fac­ul­ty mem­ber and the After School Arts Enrich­ment Pro­gram Leader. She said that the most reward­ing part of doing busi­ness in Mar­i­on is the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with stu­dents from all ele­men­tary Mar­i­on com­mu­ni­ty schools through the After School Arts Enrich­ment pro­gram. ​“We have had stu­dents come from all dif­fer­ent fam­i­lies and back­grounds to work on plays, dances, and art togeth­er. It has been a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for the kids to engage in their cre­ativ­i­ty and to meet stu­dents from oth­er schools.” Her dream for the future of the orga­ni­za­tion, more specif­i­cal­ly the After School pro­gram she leads, is for more com­mu­ni­ty stu­dents to get involved and to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn more about the arts.

Reg­is­tra­tion for the CSA Sum­mer Camps is now open and offers a new free the­atre camp for kids 6 – 12. They will be pre­sent­ing Disney’s Aris­to­cats Kids at the CSA on July 16^th and 17^th. The 6 – 12 kids camp reg­is­tra­tion is now full, but CSA is offer­ing a wait­list option for poten­tial future open­ings. Also, fall class­es at CSA begin reg­is­ter­ing on July 15^th.

For more infor­ma­tion on sum­mer camps and class­es, vis­it csa​-mar​i​on​.com/​c​l​asses or con­tact CSA by phone at 765.662.6263 or email info@​csa-​marion.​com.

Con­tacts:

Katie Mor­gan Perez, Exec­u­tive Director
katieperez@​csa-​marion.​com or 765.662.6263

Glo­ria Billings­ley, The­atre Fac­ul­ty, After School Arts Enrich­ment Pro­gram Leader
gloriabillingsley@​csa-​marion.​com or 765.662.6263

Sub­mit­ted by:
James Beyioku
Grant Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Growth Council