The M.O.S.A.I.C. Project

The goal of the project is to build mutual respect across racial and ethnic borders, to increase the participant’s interest in disparate cultures, to bring alive the study of social studies and world geography and to bring excellent artistic experiences to the participants.  A consortium of nine schools, assembled to be as diverse as possible receive subsidy money raised  by Creative Spark to fund the project at their schools.

The project is predicated on the belief that children will be favorably impressed by excellent examples of other children’s cultures and that the impression will predispose them to being more interested in and having more respect for that cultural group.  We believe that one on one diplomacy is the way towards peace and improved race relations.  This conviction is the result of many personal experiences in the lives of the project planners and supporters.  We have noticed that as the children are able to put a face on their geography lessons it increases their interest in other cultures.  Knowledge is the way to combat the ignorance that is the root of racism.

Each of the nine schools designates a group of one hundred children whose change in attitudes they measure as the program begins and ends.  These children participate in all the aspects of the program. In addition, as the performances are presented at the schools, large numbers of additional children benefit by seeing the shows.

We evaluate the project by tallying the responses of the nine hundred children to a measurement scale developed by academian Else Frenkel-Burnswik “A Study of Prejudice in Children”.  We measure their attitudes before the project starts in September and after it ends in June and compare the results. The measurement of attitudes showed approx. a 6% improvement last year towards more tolerance.

During each school year, these activities take place:

1) One-week residencies by artists representative of other cultures will work with 100 children in each of nine  schools, chosen from the approved artist roster of the S.C. Arts Commission.
2) Three or more performances chosen from a diverse roster of international artists appear at each school.
3) Correspondences consisting of students’ pictures of peace that children in our consortium send abroad to children in other countries who respond with their creations.
4) An evaluation of changes  in attitudes in September and June as the project starts and ends.

The results we have consistently shown that the schools are benefiting from the project.  Written evaluations that the teachers provide in addition to the measurable change in attitudes convince us that the project is working.  Impressively, there has been very little change in the consortium of schools which tells us that the schools value the project enough to find ways to afford their share of the costs and that they find it cost effective. 

Schools pay a portion of the cost for these artistic services with about $20,000 in subsidy money funded by grants raised by Creative Spark. Funders include the S.C. Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation, Zucker Family Endowment, Savage McGuire Foundation, Kite Foundation, Publix Supermarkets, Target Stores and others.

Through the economy of scale created by these nine schools block booking performances, Creative Spark is able to provide the same shows to dozens of schools at an affordable cost. Each school year Creative Spark helps bring over one hundred performances to schools, recreation centers and events in the area.