New Arts Cultural Society, Inc.

About New Arts Cultural Society, Inc.

New Arts Cultural Society, Inc. ( f) and its adult choir, the New Dimensions Choral Society ( f), grew out of the passion of a small group of inspired and dedicated individuals in 1970 to enhance the delivery of Fine and Performing Arts to the Shreveport-Bossier City Communities and beyond. The Steering Committee (The Guild) decided that the additional focus of the organization would be to educate the citizenry of the need for cultural and artistic expression within our community. The specific avenues to accomplish this were determined to be music, dance, the spoken word, and hands-on instruction.

The founding members were all professionals and served as role models and mentors for the youth and young people of the area. The musicians were those with the highest caliber of training in Performance and Music Education (vocal and instrumental). To include the entire community, other members were added who simply had a deep passion for music and excellence. Today, these members comprise most of the membership.

The Choral Society is the only full-scaled professional choir of its kind in the area that offers a vast repertoire of performance opportunities in Classical, Opera, Broadway, Popular, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, and Spirituals. Excellence has been the benchmark of the organization since its inception in terms of preparation and performance. New Arts originally set its focus on serving the local and surrounding areas. However, as word spread of the depth and quality of work being performed, the organization was invited to share its programs with like-minded groups in Bastrop, Baton Rouge, and Dallas, Texas.

Other memorable and historic events have marked the history of the New Arts Choral Society with a performance at the Grand Re-opening of The Strand Theatre on December 23, 1984, and the very first City-Wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Event celebration. Most recently, The New Dimensions Choral Society performed with the Shreveport Symphony and the Grambling State University Concert Choir in the production of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" on October 26, 2019 at First Baptist Church — Shreveport.

Other Projects

• The Heritage Preservation Project had its beginning in 1990. This project focused on African American composers, Art, Folk Songs, and the Negro Spiritual. Jester Hairston, composer, and actor, was the first guest lecturer and conducted the Choral Society performing many of his works that included folk Songs and Spirituals. The huge success of this event prompted the beginning of the current celebration of the Negro Spiritual Lecture-Recital and Festival of Choirs.
• Nursing Home Concerts were initiated by the current Director during the Spring of 2019 to carry the inspiration of this great music to our senior citizens who can not get out to performances throughout the community. The response from the residents has inspired New Dimensions to make the nursing home visits a part of its regular performance season.
• The New Dimensions Youth Chorale was established in 1982 to provide students an outlet to express their musical talents outside the school and church. New Arts required that students should have professional voice instruction and experiences in choral ensembles and musicianship appropriate for ages thirteen to eighteen. The Youth Chorale performed annually with the Choral Society and individually throughout the community. Their repertoire was similar in scope to that set forth for the adult organization.

Testimonials

Survey evaluations at each of the New Arts Cultural Society's performances — Christmas Program, Martin Luther...