An ‘Appalachian Spring’ Collaboration

The following is a guest post from Head of Reader Services Daniel Boomhower.

In the fall of 2012 Dr. Chris Ford, Director of the Baltimore School for the Arts, contacted the Music Division to see if his faculty and students could work with us to develop a research component in conjunction with their production of Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring. The possibility of working with high school students to create an opportunity for them to engage in a sophisticated way with primary sources intrigued us. We routinely work with graduate students in the performing arts to emphasize the idea that research skills are essential tools for dynamic artists; high school students, however, do not typically visit the Music Division with such well-thought out intentions, scholarly interest, and deep passion. The following video, produced by students at the Baltimore School for the Arts, reveals what these students took away from their time working with the collections of the Music Division. We are impressed and inspired.