Jazz Lab Summer Newark

Where art, technology, science, and imagination come together.

SUMMER 2026 · NEWARK, OHIO

What Is Jazz Lab?

Jazz Lab is A Tribe for Jazz's immersive, hands-on learning model that uses jazz and music as an entry point into science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Building on nearly two years of Jazz Lab programming with young people across Central Ohio, Jazz Lab Summer Newark brought the experience to a new community and a new summer setting.

Young people don't just hear about new ideas—they experience them. Through creativity, experimentation, and play, students try, build, explore, make choices, solve problems, and discover what happens when they put an idea into action.

Like jazz itself, Jazz Lab combines structure with the freedom to explore. Each experience is designed to create a sense of belonging, invite active participation, and give young people opportunities to learn by doing alongside people who work in the fields they're exploring.

No musical experience is required. Jazz is the starting point—a way to make new concepts approachable, spark curiosity, and help young people move from knowing that to knowing how.

Jazz Lab Newark at a Glance

151
Young People Served

Ages 9–14
Elementary & Middle School Students

3 Days
of Hands-On Exploration

3 Immersive Labs
Pixel Beats, EcoJazz Sound Lab, Futuristic City Studio

Newark Summer Labs

PIXEL BEATS LAB

Art + Technology
Code it. Build it. Hear it.
Students explore the connection between coding and music as they create beats and build their own video game soundtracks. Along the way, they discover how patterns, sequences, rhythm, and creative choices can turn code into something they can actually hear.
In the Lab: Coding · Beat Making · Music Technology · Creative Problem-Solving
ECOJAZZ SOUND LAB

Art + Science + Technology
Listen differently. Experiment with sound. Code what you hear.
Students become sound explorers, investigating how sound is created, travels, and changes. Through hands-on experimentation, they connect what they hear to scientific concepts, then use block coding to arrange sounds, build patterns, and create new combinations of music and sound.
Along the way, students discover how science, technology, and music can work together—turning listening into experimentation and ideas into something they can hear.
In the Lab: Sound Science · Block Coding · Experimentation · Active Listening · Music Technology
FUTURISTIC CITY STUDIO

Art + AI + Technology
Imagine it. Design it. Build the future.
What might the city of the future look, sound, and feel like? Students use artificial intelligence and other creative tools to imagine possibilities and bring their ideas to life. As they design their futuristic cities, they make choices, solve problems, build on ideas, and explore how technology can become a tool for creative expression.
In the Lab: Artificial Intelligence · Design · Creative Technology · Imagination · Problem-Solving

Learning by Doing

At Jazz Lab, the activity is only the beginning. Each experience gives young people opportunities to explore unfamiliar ideas, make choices, work through challenges, learn alongside others, and discover what they can do.

Creativity

Students turn ideas into something they can see, hear, build, or share—experimenting, improvising, and discovering that there is often more than one way to approach a challenge.

Collaboration

Students learn with and from one another—listening, sharing ideas, responding in the moment, and building on what others contribute.

Critical Thinking

Students ask questions, test ideas, notice what works, make adjustments, and try again—learning that an unexpected result isn't the end of the process. It can be the beginning of the next idea.

“The same kinds of principles they’re using when they’re exploring jazz and STEM concepts are the things we want them to use when they’re building successful lives and thinking about what future careers make sense for them. So we want to understand what their skills and interests are and how that leads to a bright future, and Jazz Lab is one more way to help them to explore that.”

— Jim Micciula, VP, EducationJunior Achievement of Central Ohio

Thank you to Our Funders

Jazz Lab Summer Newark was made possible through the generous support of Meta and AEP Ohio, whose investment helped bring hands-on jazz and STEAM learning to 151 young people in Newark.