TCCS Arts in the PARKing Lot Event

This Wednesday, September 30th from 5-6 pm, The Teaneck Community Charter
School will launch the first event in its monthly “ARTs in the Parking Lot” series of socially distanced, outdoor arts events intended to bring students, teachers, and families
from the school’s community together in a socially responsible way to enjoy the visual and
performing arts. The rain date for the event is Thursday, October 1st, from 5-6 pm.
“We wanted to come up with safe, responsible ways for students, teachers, and
families to come together, particularly since we haven’t been able to do that since last
March,” said Abbie Liehr-DeFeo, the school’s art teacher, who is co-coordinator of the
event. “Students miss their teachers, teachers miss their students, and families miss the
entire community experience of being at their child’s school.”
Wednesday’s event, entitled, Crash That Trash, will bring together students and
their families in a performance art setting to try out instruments made from everyday
recycled materials to create sound. The other event coordinator, TCCS music teacher
Geoffrey Keitel, created the idea after watching a documentary film about an orchestra in
Paraguay that developed string, percussion, and wood instruments from recycled
materials.

“Music is all around us,” says Keitel. “Sometimes we just need to be inventive about
how to create sound from low cost materials that we might normally throw out. Not only
will students be able to hear what sound various materials can create, but they will be
respecting the environment by recycling as well.”
Keitel sent students and families instructions on how to create any one of 12
different instruments from the string, percussion, and/or wood sections of an orchestra.
The intent is to give each family a spot in the parking lot, as if it were a spot in the orchestra
pit. Keeping six feet apart, and fully masked, each student and his or her family will
perform. In addition, family members will bring a picnic dinner and/or enjoy food from a
local food truck.
Every month, the focus of the series will shift from visual to the performing arts. See
the preliminary schedule of events attached.