Annual Jubilee arts celebration ends with big show Friday

Earlier this month for First Friday, visual artists had their moment with receptions honoring their work for the annual Jubilee arts celebration. Art work for students in grades kindergarten through high school remains on exhibit at the Homer Council on the Arts, the Pratt Museum and in the South Peninsula Hospital’s gallery on the main floor.

At 7 p.m. Friday in the Mariner Theatre, performing artists get to shine under the bright lights with music, dance, gymnastics and even hula hooping. From ages 5 to 17, performers were challenged to audition last week. All acts had to be performance ready. In most years, about 20 acts might show up. This year, 95 artists with 36 acts dared to try out.

“It was just amazing. Every single act that auditioned was completely worthy of performing,” said Mary Langham, technical director for the Jubilee Youth Performing Arts Show.

With so many acts, though, that would have meant two shows. The judges decided to involve as many kids as possible and whittle the show to 25 acts. Many performers were in multiple acts, and the result was that all but three artists got entered.

“That’s really a pretty good sized army,” Langham said.

The lineup includes groups with names like the Hooping Hooligans and Vheneka Marimba, Homer’s newest and youngest African marimba group, a trio that has played at Homer United Methodist Church. There are piano solos, piano duets and even a piano and dance-vocal number. Members of the Homer Youth String Orchestra perform, as does a quartet from Jocelyn Shiro’s dance troupe.

That group of three high school students and one middle school student had the choice of trying out for “Pops,” Homer High School’s performing arts event. With a middle school student dancing, that meant it would be a trio and not a quartet. The group chose to stay together and only try out for Jubilee, Langham said.

“That’s a very sweet thing,” she said.

With rock ’n’ roll, classical, Broadway and world music, Langham said it’s a very dynamic lineup.

“The show order is extremely boom, exploding, dynamic, exciting,” she said. “It should be a good one.”

Retired teacher and longtime HCOA arts volunteer Diane Borgman helped start Jubilee in the late 1980s as a venue for young performers. Beyond giving students an opportunity to shine in all the arts, Jubilee also is a fundraiser for HCOA’s youth scholarship arts programs.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.

Jubilee Youth Performing Arts Show

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Mariner Theatre

Tickets: $5 youth, $10 Homer Council on the Arts members, $15 general admission, available at HCOA, homerart.org and the Homer Bookstore

Jubilee Youth Art Exhibits:

•
Homer Council on the Arts

•
South Peninsula Hospital art gallery

• Pratt Museum