MOSAIC, and how art can save young lives

Mosaic Sometimes, when you have a treasure located in your own backyard, it’s easy to take it for granted. And in Detroit, where artistic talent has been so plentiful for so long, this can sometimes be as much of a blessing as it is a problem. This city has produced a list of world-class musicians and artists that has caused the rest of the world to gape and point in disbelief for more than a half century.
But to Detroiters, these folks were – and are – just our neighbors, or somebody we went to school with, or maybe somebody who frequented the same parties. To be considered ‘bad’ in Detroit, you better be really, really good. Because if you aren’t, chances are somebody’s got an uncle or a cousin or a ‘boo’ working nights somewhere that will blow you off a stage as easily as making a sandwich, and then go back to work.
Which brings us to Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit.
Now in its 24th season, Mosaic is kicking off the holidays this weekend at the Detroit Institute of Arts with its eighth production of “Woodward Wonderland: A Detroit Holiday Celebration,” a family friendly event featuring the talents of some of Detroit’s most gifted young people that you probably have never heard of – yet.
“We did it because we wanted to do something that was uniquely Detroit. That uniquely spoke to this community and our traditions. And so the entire play … it’s all stories about Detroit. One of the key ones is about going to the old Hudson’s building at Christmastime. And this is something that none of our young performers are old enough to have experienced, so it’s all oral history,” said Mosaic founder and CEO Rick Sperling.
“There’s a piece on the Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1990 when the Chilly Willy float escaped. There’s a piece on ice skating in Campus Martius. Of all the shows we do, this is the most family friendly for everyone. It connects with what’s unique and what’s great about this city and this community.”
For those not familiar with Mosaic, a quick scan of the press release:
“Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit is an internationally-acclaimed performing arts company and national leader in creative youth development. Mosaic’s all-teen theatre and vocal music performances have toured Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada, the White House, The Kennedy Center, and 25 states throughout the U.S. Mosaic has won national awards from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as two gold and two silver medals at the 2014 World Choir Games in Latvia. Mosaic has also represented the U.S. at the World Festival of Children’s Theatre and has ongoing partnerships with The Public Theater in New York and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
The Mosaic Singers have opened for Al Green, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, and Maya Angelou, and performed with Josh Groban, Foreigner, and Sweet Honey in the Rock.”
Which would go a long way toward explaining why Mosaic is considered one of Detroit’s many jewels. But perhaps the biggest reason, and the reason why the company was founded in the first place, is what it does for so many of the city’s young people in a city that has let them down in too many ways.
In light of recent highly-publicized events (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, The University of Missouri) some may have noticed that it’s a bit of a challenge being a young black person in America these days. Some might say it’s not too much unlike walking around with a target painted on your back. Which is why a Mosaic is such an important thing to have in Detroit. Young people need to know their value, and it has been the mission of Mosaic for nearly a quarter century to make sure that they do.
But for Sperling, who brought this entire thing to life, Mosaic wasn’t exactly what he had in mind in terms of a career at first. He had other plans, but then a few things happened. They were the kind of eye-opening things that made Sperling realize perhaps what he had intended for his life wasn’t quite as spectacular as what something else seemed to have planned.
Sperling tells it best, and he tells it best uninterrupted. Well, maybe a few interruptions.
Anyway, here goes…
“I was actually pursuing a career as a director and an actor. I was not thinking about working with young people. But I got a job with the Attic Theater, which used to be the main professional theater in Detroit, going into schools with actors doing outreach into the schools, and through that job I was so blown away with the immense amount of talent and enthusiasm but also by the fact that they were not just those theater and music programs in Detroit that there used to be.
“We estimate that 95 percent of Detroit schools have no drama programs, and I think DPS’ last statistic was that only 30 percent of schools have music programs.
“So we saw that were really these great young people and there was a real need, but then we actually did a production at the Attic Theater with young people who had actually been at our program, and other young people from around the area, and the production was so much better than any of us imagined it would be. It was just an incredible amount of not just talent but the way it all came together. And that’s when we realized that there was a real opportunity to create a world-class youth arts organization here. I like to say there was a mix of need and opportunity.
“The other piece of the puzzle is that we saw this work was having an incredible impact on young people. Not just those that were going into the arts, but all the young people that were in our program, and we started to track our work, and over our 23- plus year history, we have had 95 percent of our young people go to college.
“The University of Michigan did a study of Mosaic for three years from 2004-2007 when they followed the kids for three years. They found that there was a significant impact of the program on professional and career development for these young people. One of the things they found out was that in the young people that they followed, more than 36 percent of the young people when they first joined Mosaic did not expect to get a college degree. And after just one year in the program, more than 97 percent expected to get a college degree, with 47 percent of those expecting to get a post graduate degree.”
“That isn’t because we do a lot of tutoring. We see it as when you can connect to that passion, to that talent that you have, it just ignites every other part of you. These young people know they have to do well in school to stay in Mosaic, and once they’ve gotten excited about it and want to do more, that’s when they start thinking about college and what they want to do with their futures. And a lot of that national and international travel really broadens peoples’ horizons.
“I will say that Mosaic is not going to be the answer for every young person. It’s really for those young people that have that talent and that passion. But for those young people, it’s a window to success. And not just success in the arts. We have alumni who have become lawyers and social workers and teachers. And they’ve worked behind the scenes as designers and producers. And even the ones who didn’t end up performing, in that University of Michigan study, they still came back to say that this experience in Mosaic prepared them for success in what they went into.
“We have had alumni that have been nominated for Tony Awards, and Grammy awards, and Emmy awards. Haven’t had a win yet, but we’ve had nominations.
“This is an opportunity for people to see tomorrow’s stars, right here in Detroit.”
General admission tickets for “WOODWARD Wonderland” (at the DIA) are $24 for adults, $18 for seniors and adult full-time students (current I.D. required) and $15 for youth age 5-17. “Mosaic Front and Center” premium seats are available for an additional $10 (subject to availability).
Show dates and times: