The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts selected Trenton for its Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program Watch video
TRENTON -- The sights and sounds of children singing, playing instruments and dancing filled the auditorium at Grace Dunn Middle School and outside, the hallways were lined with colorful artwork.
The special performances were proof that arts education is already thriving in Trenton, but a new initiative announced Wednesday will help the district improve its programs for years to come.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts selected Trenton for its Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program, which aims to bring "access, balance and equity" to arts education using an affordable model.
The capital city is the 19th city in the country to join the program and the first in New Jersey.
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"Arts education lays so many foundations, creates so many strong beginnings for our students to choose to do whatever they would like in their life," Superintendent Francisco Duran said. "This is another opportunity to help continue in that great work."
The multi-year program is a collaboration between Kennedy Center staff and consultants, the city, district and local arts groups with the goal of increasing opportunities for the arts and reaching every child in grades kindergarten through eighth.
Though joining the initiative provides the city with a wealth of resources from both the Kennedy Center and other cities that have already begun the work, Trenton's long-term plan will reflect the community and its specific needs.
"The community owns the work and they tailor make the strategies to fit their students, their parents, their partners, their community," said Mario Rossero, the Kennedy Center's senior vice president of education.
The impetus to apply for the program came from Georgeanne Gould Moss, a Princeton resident and member of the Kennedy Center's National Committee for the Performing Arts. Two years ago, she and her husband were in Austin, Texas -- another Any Given Child city -- and saw firsthand the impact the program had on the city.
"I came back and I said to my husband, 'I've got to get this into Trenton, I really do, because they need it,'" Moss recalled.
Inspired by her parents who always taught her the importance of early childhood development, she began meeting with school officials on how they could bring the program to Trenton.
Over the first nine months, Kennedy Center staff will work with a Community Arts Team to review existing arts education to see what is offered, what is lacking and create a plan for improvement. The first meeting is set for Sept. 24.
A committee will then be created to recommend to the district and local arts groups on how to best carry out the plan.
The Kennedy Center covers the majority of the costs, but sites are required to contribute funds toward the first four years. Moss, who is responsible for the funding, made a gift in memory of her late father.
Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts is among the partners who will help the city bring its plan to fruition. Its faculty and students will help empower the children and bring a kind of arts they might otherwise not have discovered.
"What we want to do is be at the table so we can figure out how to help the community," Dean Matthew Shaftel said. "What the needs of the community are, where we can provide support, where we can provide student engagement."
Shaftel, who joined Rider on July 1, said a big reason he took the job was the opportunity to participate in the initiative.
One idea he had was to have theater majors work with the students on a joint performance.
"We will do whatever it takes to make sure those resources are ready to go and ready to help the community," he said. "I can only imagine the different things that will come out of it."
Mayor Eric Jackson said he knows firsthand the impact arts education can have on a child. When he was a seventh grader at what is now Hedgepath-Williams Middle School, his music teacher insisted that he learn to play the upright bass. He later went on to play in orchestras across the country and become an accomplished bassist.
"Music changed my life and helped me to be the person I am today and understand the importance of the arts as mayor," he said. "When you talk about impact, one teacher, one program as dynamic as this can and does change and alter in a positive way the course of one's life."
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.