Each quarter at HEART we work around a different theme and the heART Shows reflect that theme. "Identity" is our theme this quarter and heART Show attendees will see the heARTist's exploration of this in our visual heART Gallery as well as our performing arts piece; PechaKucha Style.

Pecha Kucha Nights is an event that started in Tokyo-- the word means chit chat in Japanese. It is a platform for the creatives in a community to share their work. PechaKucha events now happen in over 900 cities around the world-- including Charleston! The PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where the presenter shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and the presenter talks along to the images. 

At HEART, we thought-- "we are creatives too-- we need a platform for adults with special needs to share their work!" So HEART decided to adapt the PechaKucha style down to 10 slides and the images are manually advanced. PechaKucha adapted is the perfect platform for the heARTists to explore who they are, share that with others, give context to themselves, and be affirmed by their family, peers, and community through their art.

The heARTists have been enjoying the process of putting together their photo slide show presentations and are working out the kinks in rehearsals now. We can already see where this project and theme has had a profound effect on the heARTists self awareness and self esteem. Like all other heART Shows-- this will be a special night!