In 2021, a coalition of national museum and library associations awarded the Peale (Baltimore, Maryland) a Communities for Immunity grant. The goal of the project is for trusted, local institutions to engage their communities in order to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Since being awarded the grant, we've been gathering stories, with the help of collaborating organizations like the Stoop Storytelling Series, from people about their experiences with COVID and getting the vaccine.

Tristan Stefanovic (00:00): Hello, everyone. So lovely to be here with you tonight. Let me introduce myself, Tristan Stefanovic, I'm a junior at the Baltimore School for the Arts. And tonight I'm going to be sharing with you the culmination of a several week program that we've worked with a program called Voices on Vax. It's been a lovely opportunity and I'm so proud and happy to share this story with you tonight.

Tristan Stefanovic (00:21): So this story begins sometime back in 2019, the fall of 2019, and at this time I was beginning my time at Baltimore School for the Arts as a freshman. I was quite excited because this is a very unique school. And I've heard a lot of about it because both of my siblings have been there. The reason it's such a unique school is because it's a combination of academics and arts at the same time. My personal art specialization, as you can see behind me, I am a cellist. And so I was very excited to be able to combine my learning in such a way.

Tristan Stefanovic (00:55): So the first few months of school was excellent. It was really great to be able to have academic classes and then sit down, not only learn about music, but playing ensembles with others, whether it be large ensembles with other string instruments or with full orchestra settings or chamber music, which is a smaller group. It's just such a great opportunity to be able to go into school with smile on your face and say, "This is something I really enjoy doing."

Tristan Stefanovic (01:26): Every year at the Baltimore School for the Arts we put on a show called Expressions. You may have heard of it if you're a Baltimore local, where we combine all of the departments together. So there's a theater production, there is music, there is dance, there is all this stuff combined together, it's really fantastic. And so March of 2020, was when my first Expressions was, I was extremely excited to be able to participate for my first time. I was both playing with the string orchestra and also with the band to accompany some of the singers playing several arrangements of some popular songs and it went fantastically. We had shows and our final show was on a Sunday night and it went really well. It was great to come back to school the next morning and say, "We did it. We can stop worrying about this because it was really a great experience."

Tristan Stefanovic (02:16): And I think it was about that Thursday when we were in an orchestra rehearsal that our principal at the time, Dr. [inaudible 00:02:23] walked into the room and took aside our music director and had a word with her. And we didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end so to speak in the sense that we would not come back to school the next day or the next two weeks or for the next year. And it was at the end of that day that we found out that we should take everything out of our lockers and we probably won't be returning for two weeks. And at the time we think, this is great. We just finished our big show. We get two weeks off, excellent. No problem. I can deal with this. I can go relax. I can do whatever I want.

Asset ID: 2022.05.08

Find a complete transcript on the Peale's website.

The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the recordings for this project do not necessarily represent those of the Peale or the Institute of Museum and Library Services.