Recent Brimmer and May graduate Laura Lopez (right) performed in the upper school’s production of Candide. Photo by David Barron/Oxygen Group
In 2010, Laura Lopez, a fourth-grader at the Charles Sumner School, a public elementary school in Roslindale, Massachusetts, was an Oompa Loompa in Brimmer and May School’s (MA) production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She hoped to one day attend the independent school as a student.
Lopez’s participation in that production began through a partnership between Sumner and Brimmer, now in its 14th year, in which Brimmer students originally made quarterly visits to Sumner’s Extended Day program to collaborate on creative arts. In 2008, Brimmer launched the Creative Arts Diploma Program (CAP), giving Brimmer students the opportunity to focus on an arts concentration and share their talents with the larger community, including Sumner. Brimmer is part of National Network of Schools in Partnership, an organization that promotes the collaboration between independent schools and public schools.
Each year, a few Sumner students—like Lopez—participate in Brimmer’s two upper school productions. “We select students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to be on stage, and you can see how the experience impacts them as they grow,” says Jeanette Pizzaro, Sumner’s Extended Day director. About 50 students are also invited to attend all four middle and upper school productions throughout the year.
Brimmer CAP students visit Sumner twice a week and work with the same group of students throughout the year. Each fall, Bill Jacob, creative arts department chair at Brimmer, leads a new group of Sumner students in singing, rhythm, dance, and drama. As the year progresses, CAP 11th- and 12th-graders lead these hands-on activities.
Lopez did attend high school at Brimmer and took full advantage of the theater program, appearing in multiple productions throughout her four years. Last spring, as a senior, she volunteered at the Sumner School as part of her Brimmer 12th Grade Project, tutoring students in the before- and after-school programs and assisting with group activities.
Brimmer has received several accolades for CAP, including the 2017 Arts|Learning Award for Outstanding Community Arts Education Collaborative—Mixed Media, which honors organizations and individuals that have developed collaborative arts programs with school and community cultural resources. It has also received multiple community service awards from the Parents of Independent Schools Network.
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