Tune into Arts in the Valley on Saturday, November 26th as host Kim McMillon interviews Club Mercedes boardmember Les Contreras, Merced Shakespeare Festival founder/artistic director Heike Hambley, and UC Merced Community Coordinator Geneva Skram.
To listen to Les Contreras discuss Club Mercedes, click onto this link:club mercedes-2
Les Contreras will discuss Club Mercedes upcoming holiday programming, and their Social, which happens the last Wednesday of the month. There is a free dinner at 6:30 pm. The next social is the last Wednesday in January. Club Merced is located at the corner of 9th & “M” Street in Merced.
For more information, call 383-9906 or 769-9282.
Club Mercedes, 64 years of raising money, and giving back to the community
To Listen to Heike Hambley discuss Merced Shakespearefest, click onto this link:Merced Shakespearefest
Heike Hambley will produce The Merchant of Venice this winter. Performances are Feb 24-March 4, 2012. Rehearsals will be in January and February. Heike loves Shakespeare and all his characters, the lovers, the fools, the witches, the witty servants, the warriors and the timeless poetry. She also lovesShakespeare festivals and Renaissance fairs and theatre and working with people to put on a finished production everybody can be proud of and have fun with.
Merced’s own Shakespeare festival was born out of these sentiments and helped by a successful production of “Twelfth Night” that she directed for Merced Center for the Performing Arts, now Playhouse Merced, in February 2002. Cast and crew had so much fun that at the cast party they decided to explore the possibility of bringing a Shakespeare festival to the whole community. Wonderful Shakespeare enthusiasts like Michael Egan, Julianne Aguilar, Carolyn Hart, and others brainstormed and discussed and worked hard. Three months later they had raised some money from generous friends, relatives and art lovers, got rehearsal space from the Playhouse, a non-profit umbrella from the Merced Arts Council and had rented the rarely used Merced Open Air Theatre in Applegate Park. This stage is a perfect Shakespearian space, wide open with pillars on both sides, a lot of sun and natural light for the performers, but green grass and shade trees for the audience.
They are incorporated as Merced Shakespearefest, Inc. and have their own non-profit status. The city of Merced is co-sponsoring their events and many individuals and businesses are contributing. It pays to dream.
For more information about Merced Shakespearefest, call Heike Hambley at (209) 723 3265 or visit mercedshakespearefest.org.
To Listen to Geneva Skram discuss the Community Engagement program, click onto this link:uc merced conf-1
UC Merced Community Coordinator Geneva Skram will discuss the Community Engagement and Scholarship program, which took place on December 2nd at UC Merced.
University of California, Merced Chancellor’s Task Force on Community Engaged Scholarship hosted a conference on its campus in Merced focused on youth development in Merced County. The conference was intended to advance the agenda for the Building Healthy Communities (BHC) initiative in Southwest Merced/East Merced County, which has as a primary goal to improve health outcomes for youth.
The aim of the conference was to inform our community about youth development and stimulate new ideas and efforts in Merced County. The conference featured community engaged research and programs that are based on research evidence that advance youth development.
Geneva Skram was hired 5 months ago as UC Merced’s Community Coordinator within University Relations. Through the Chancellor’s Task Force on Community Engaged Scholarship she is responsible for promoting, supporting, and highlighting Community Engaged Scholarship on-campus and in the community through workshops for community members and UC Merced faculty, students, and staff, database building, organizing an upcoming conference, among other activities. Currently, the Task Force’s work is being funded by The California Endowment’s, Building Healthy Communities initiative which is a 10 year, $10 million goal of radically improving the health in 14 California communities one of which includes Southwest Merced/East Merced County. Geneva and the Task Force are working hard to strengthen collaborations between faculty, staff, and students at UC Merced and community members with a focus on building a body of knowledge about community health issues and factors that influence health equity in Merced County.
For more information visit communityresearch.ucmerced.edu or contact Geneva Skram, UC Merced Community Coordinator, at gskram@ucmerced.edu.
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