Spectrum of Hope

SPECTRUM OF HOPE is the story of 10 musical theater students, their families, and their teachers as they journey from their special needs school in New York City's Lower East Side to the Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a beautiful moment in all of their lives - a celebration of the power of arts education, musical theater, and what can be accomplished when students are allowed to flourish on their own terms.

P94M: The Spectrum School is part of the NYC Department of Education's District 75, which focuses on educating students with special needs. It is the only District 75 school dedicated to the performing arts, and it was once a school in crisis.

Over the past few years, The Spectrum School has evolved, working with artists from NYC-based ArtsConnection and utilizing the tools that arts education uniquely provides for improving communication and teamwork.

When these students got to Atlanta, they faced new challenges both as budding artists and young teens - performing and socializing within a sea of 4,000 singing, screaming middle-school students from all over the country.

At home, their world is defined by constant structure; in Atlanta, they went on a new adventure - experiencing the same rites of passage as their peers.

Walking into a dark, cavernous room full of flashing lights and loud crowds, these students stepped boldly into the unknown - and although none of them knew what would come next, they met this new world with open hearts.

Click here to watch the full film.