Matthew Rohde is fundraising
Kithara Project Capital Campaign in Mexico
Introduction to Kithara Project
Kithara Project (www.kitharaproject.org) is a nonprofit organization that improves the lives and opportunities of children and young people in the US and Mexico through the classical guitar. It currently maintains programs in Boston, Albuquerque, and Mexico City, offering its students tuition free group and individual classes, music theory, guest artist performances and workshops, and performance opportunities -- in short, a comprehensive music education. Our programs are also platforms for cultural exchange: students are pen pals and will soon meet to form the core of an international youth guitar orchestra.
Kithara Project Mexico City
Kithara Project's Mexico City Program is based in a community called Yuguelito, in the famously marginalized "delegation" -- borough -- of Iztapalapa. Yuguelito, which lacks many basic municipal services, faces tremendous socioeconomic and environmental challenges. Despite these challenges, the community has rallied behind a music program, which among other things acts as a powerful barrier between young people and the dangers of the street.
Kithara Project has now operated for four years in Yuguelito, and with the enthusiastic support of the community leadership, we have committed to building a music school to replace the improvised teaching space we've depended on for so long. A renowned local architecture studio has also already drawn plans, pro bono. A building like this will provide an incalculable boost for students here and for the cause of music in Yuguelito and beyond. Check out this short video before reading more about the project, below!
The Building
To begin the design, students (pictured below) were supplied with paper and colored pencils before being asked to draw their own, ideal, music schools. Ultimately, the final design incorporated details from each student's drawing.
The project is destined for a relatively small plot of 9 x 9 meters (870 square feet), next to the community library. The building, which is two stories, will contain practice, teaching, storage, and performance spaces -- the latter connected to the street by a "portico," designed at once as a way of attracting the street into the more private areas of the building and acting as a sort of "speaker" into the community. This portico will be covered in plants.
The proposed design makes absolutely brilliant use of a small site and small budget to create a sanctuary to music that draws in so many wonderful ways on its site and broader geographical, historical, and social context. Attached are a bird’s eye view of the site and a few of the latest concept renderings. The building plays off the Mexican historical architectural motif of the “open chapel” (“capilla abierta”), with the intent of creating a seamless and inviting transition between the local street life and music making. The “skin” of the building will be a mosaic of found and donated bricks and rubble, in homage to the site’s history as a repository for the rubble from Mexico’s 1985 earthquake. It will also be angled on the site, so that the archway might frame the two volcanoes that are situated on either side of the community.
Our goal of $40,000 includes materials and construction costs, furnishing the building after construction, and provides for maintenance and some program support. All donations $1,000 and over will be recognized on a plaque on the wall of the new building.
Please join us in making this project a reality!
The Progress
In January, Kithara Project -- joined by student families, Yuguelito community leadership, and architects from TO Studios , -- gathered to kick off construction. A young student made an impromptu thank you speech, some of which was captured in this heartwarming video clip . After some delays due to COVID-19 safety precautions, construction is expected to begin in earnest in early April.
Kithara Project (www.kitharaproject.org) is a nonprofit organization that improves the lives and opportunities of children and young people in the US and Mexico through the classical guitar. It currently maintains programs in Boston, Albuquerque, and Mexico City, offering its students tuition free group and individual classes, music theory, guest artist performances and workshops, and performance opportunities -- in short, a comprehensive music education. Our programs are also platforms for cultural exchange: students are pen pals and will soon meet to form the core of an international youth guitar orchestra.
Kithara Project Mexico City
Kithara Project's Mexico City Program is based in a community called Yuguelito, in the famously marginalized "delegation" -- borough -- of Iztapalapa. Yuguelito, which lacks many basic municipal services, faces tremendous socioeconomic and environmental challenges. Despite these challenges, the community has rallied behind a music program, which among other things acts as a powerful barrier between young people and the dangers of the street. Kithara Project has now operated for four years in Yuguelito, and with the enthusiastic support of the community leadership, we have committed to building a music school to replace the improvised teaching space we've depended on for so long. A renowned local architecture studio has also already drawn plans, pro bono. A building like this will provide an incalculable boost for students here and for the cause of music in Yuguelito and beyond. Check out this short video before reading more about the project, below!
The Building
To begin the design, students (pictured below) were supplied with paper and colored pencils before being asked to draw their own, ideal, music schools. Ultimately, the final design incorporated details from each student's drawing.The project is destined for a relatively small plot of 9 x 9 meters (870 square feet), next to the community library. The building, which is two stories, will contain practice, teaching, storage, and performance spaces -- the latter connected to the street by a "portico," designed at once as a way of attracting the street into the more private areas of the building and acting as a sort of "speaker" into the community. This portico will be covered in plants. The proposed design makes absolutely brilliant use of a small site and small budget to create a sanctuary to music that draws in so many wonderful ways on its site and broader geographical, historical, and social context. Attached are a bird’s eye view of the site and a few of the latest concept renderings. The building plays off the Mexican historical architectural motif of the “open chapel” (“capilla abierta”), with the intent of creating a seamless and inviting transition between the local street life and music making. The “skin” of the building will be a mosaic of found and donated bricks and rubble, in homage to the site’s history as a repository for the rubble from Mexico’s 1985 earthquake. It will also be angled on the site, so that the archway might frame the two volcanoes that are situated on either side of the community.
Our goal of $40,000 includes materials and construction costs, furnishing the building after construction, and provides for maintenance and some program support. All donations $1,000 and over will be recognized on a plaque on the wall of the new building.
Please join us in making this project a reality!
The Progress
In January, Kithara Project -- joined by student families, Yuguelito community leadership, and architects from TO Studios , -- gathered to kick off construction. A young student made an impromptu thank you speech, some of which was captured in this heartwarming video clip . After some delays due to COVID-19 safety precautions, construction is expected to begin in earnest in early April.
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