Spotlight School of Arts goes not-for-profit

P.E.I.'s Spotlight School of Arts says moving to non-profit status will help make arts and theatre programs more available to everyone on the Island.

The school, formerly known as Spotlight Theatre Company, started in 2010 in Summerside, and then expanded to Charlottetown.

Recently, founder and owner Reasha Walsh turned it into a not-for-profit school, bringing in a board of directors, a move she hopes will lead to more expansion.

"Becoming a non-profit will enable us to do more for the communities that we're in, it will enable us to offer more shows, expand our outreach to more children, more teens, more adults, and just to do more, just to spread our love of the arts," Walsh told Mainstreet's Angela Walker.

By adding more programs, Spotlight has become an all-encompassing school for theatre and arts.  

More programs

"We've got classes and workshops and camps in acting, musical theatre, dance, improv, and art, and they are expanding," said Walsh. "But we offer programs from age three up until age 100, whoever wants to take a program can take a program. So we're trying to expand our love for it as far as we can and reach as many people as we can. Anyone who's interested at all."

While they are training young people who may turn professional in the future, the focus is more on the value arts training has for anyone.

"Not a large percentage of our students will go on to post-secondary education or career in the arts," Walsh said. "But a substantial amount have, and they are excelling really well in their programs. But I think what attests to what we've achieved is not necessarily those students, but what our students who have not taken that path are accomplishing in life."

Walsh said she often sees theatre and arts programs lead directly to increased self-confidence in her students.

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