Tuesday, December 16, 2014

One Focus

Rie Poirier-Campbell, Executive Director

Just six short weeks ago, I had the great good fortune of becoming Executive Director of Hartford Performs. Since then, I’ve been on a fast-paced, artful, educational journey to learn about its many facets.

What I’ve found is an impressive collaboration of educators, artists, business people and community leaders. That’s a powerful combination. Hartford Performs is a creative network of diversely talented people from many sectors of our community all gathered together around one central focus: Hartford students.

I can’t tell you how many times each week I hear our fabulous staff – Jaclynn and Larisa – say, “It’s for the students.” 

When we’re scheduling dozens of artists’ appearances in classrooms each week, it’s for the students. When we’re providing professional development to artists to help them use their dance or theater talents to teach math or social studies, it’s for the students. When we’re working with teachers to select the right arts offering to enhance their science curriculum, it’s for the students.

Everything that Hartford Performs does is, indeed, all for the children of Hartford. It’s to make their education richer, deeper, more meaningful, more interesting and more long lasting. The idea behind Hartford Performs is that the arts are not only important in and of themselves; they have the ability to enrich learning of all types. 

Students, for instance, might read about how molecules move at different temperatures, but when they get up and dance like molecules, they get it right down to their toes. They might hear a lesson about the Civil War, but when they have to act out a scene about the conflict, they have some great Ah Ha! moments about motivations and consequences. 

Using the arts to enhance lessons help students to understand so much more deeply. Plus, it makes their classrooms more engaging and truly student-centered. Teaching through the arts calls on students to explore and create. They need to invest themselves in their learning. So while students are drumming, dancing, acting or making a mural, they are developing desirable skills such as creative problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and presentation skills.

By bringing the arts into the classroom and bringing the students out to see the arts at work in the community, we’re helping to develop young minds that, yes, know a lot of things, AND (even more important) know better how to think.

The techniques we use help Hartford public school students to become interested, interesting people. They foster students’ sense of exploration, their ability to think critically, and come up with truly innovative approaches to challenges. Isn’t that what we want from the people we are going to trust to run our world someday?


Monday, September 29, 2014

Hartford Performs Appoints New Executive Director

The Board of Directors of Hartford Performs announces the appointment of Rie Poirier-Campbell as the new Executive Director of Hartford Performs. Poirier-Campbell will be succeeding Robert Warren, who has left the position due to health reasons.

Most recently Vice President of Advancement at the Connecticut Science Center, Poirier-Campbell has over 25 years of experience in nonprofit management, overseeing strategic direction, governance, fund development, grant writing, community and government relations, marketing and communications. Prior to her time at the Connecticut Science Center, she worked for 12 years at the Greater Hartford Arts Council, serving as the Chief Operating Officer from 2009 to 2012.

In making the announcement, Mike Stotts, Managing Director of Hartford Stage and Co-Chair of Hartford Performs stated, “I am delighted to welcome Rie to Hartford Performs, an organization she knows very well.  As a seasoned arts professional, with a keen interest in the education of Hartford students, she brings all of the qualities and skills we are looking for in our Executive Director.  I look forward to working with Rie to continue to build on the rapid success of the organization, and carry us forward to a new period of growth and impact, integrating the arts in the education of students at all Hartford Public Schools.”

Echoing Stotts’ sentiments, Jackie Coleman, Senior Executive Advisor for the Arts in the Hartford Public Schools said, “Rie has an understanding of the foundation on which Hartford Performs was built. She contributed to numerous community conversations during its evolution. Her background knowledge is an asset we are lucky to capitalize on and I look forward to seeing how she inspires students’ success through the arts.”

Hartford Performs is a nonprofit organization designed to ensure that all Hartford Public School students have access to quality arts education delivered through in-school teaching staff in partnership with Hartford’s vibrant arts community. The group provides a comprehensive arts integration approach that utilizes the resources of community arts providers as partners in the shared goal of raising student achievement.

“All children deserve the kind of arts education that will enliven their learning today and help make them the creative workforce of tomorrow. I'm excited to be joining a team of professionals dedicated to making that happen,” said Poirier-Campbell.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

'Year in Review'

From the desk of the Executive Director, Robert Warren

As the saying goes, a lot can happen in one year, and such a saying serves as an understatement when Hartford Performs looked back at our 2013-2014 year. While enjoying our new home in the City Arts on Pearl building in downtown Hartford, Hartford Performs served over 12,000 students through our Arts Integration programs. We received new funding, were selected to participate in the Partners in Education program of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and started a high school arts workgroup.

Program Performance

Hartford Performs’ crew of more than 100 Arts providers were able to integrate the arts into 26 schools this year.  Not only are kids taking to these arts infused academic programs and performances with increased interest and excitement, but their teachers are also enthusiastic about the programs and are seeing improvement in their students’ test scores. Hartford Performs is recognized as an influential and inspirational program for Hartford Public School students.
Hartford Performs’ impact on HPS students was a key component of our presentation to the Hartford Board of Education in December which resulted in a unanimous vote to renew our contract with the district for another three years. Additionally, Hartford Performs received 501(c)3 status from the IRS officially recognizing us as a tax exempt, nonprofit organization.
The Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program will allow us to strengthen our Professional Development for teachers and arts providers. This year we will bring Kennedy Center teaching artists to Hartford to provide deepened arts integration workshops for teachers in our participating schools.  While here, they will also work with some of our own arts providers to help them create deepened arts integration workshops of their own which will be available to Hartford Performs schools and other districts in future years.
As we continue to grow, we acknowledge that grades PK-8 are not the only grades that can benefit from our programs. Therefore we started a high school arts workgroup to see what arts integration can look like at the high school level.

Thanking our New Funders
  • BeFoundation
  •   Knox Foundation
  • The Fund for Greater Hartford
  •  The Ritter Family Fund

The BeFoundation is invested in the educational outcomes of disadvantaged students and their grant is allowing us to develop a brand new database for our arts programs in partnership with the Connecticut Center of Advanced Technology (CCAT).  The Knox Foundation helps nonprofits that are working to address Hartford’s most pressing needs in the community and their funds will supplement the training required for the new system. The Fund for Greater Hartford aligns with two of our values of arts and education and is providing much needed operational support.  The Ritter Family Fund supported a teaching artist pilot program at Noah Webster School. We were thoroughly pleased to receive this new local support from these generous, community-minded organizations.
We truly appreciate when funders see the effect we are having and want to help our efforts. None of what we do would be possible without the ongoing support we receive from Hartford Public Schools, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Prudential Foundation and Travelers. Our efforts to improve the education of students could not be made possible without you.

To Another Great Year

This year there was a lot to be thankful for and we are happy to see the positive results. Next year we look forward to another strong year with continued growth by adding two more schools, enhancing professional development with the Kennedy Center’s program model, and beginning to pilot programs at the high school level. If you enjoyed reading our year in review, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! Don’t forget to like Hartford Performs on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/HartfordPerforms?ref_type=bookmark.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Ringing in the New Year with Robert - a letter from the Executive Director

It’s hard to believe that Eleven Months have already gone by since I took over the reins of Hartford Performs.  Before my one year anniversary rolls around I wanted to share some of the amazing accomplishments that the Hartford Performs team knocked off of our to-do list.  The gifts and accolades seemed to come at us in waves during the last two months but that was only after a lot of hard work and extra hours were put in. 

The tidal wave of good news began in November when we were notified that The Prudential Foundation approved a grant of $100,000 to support the continued growth of Hartford Performs and our Arts Integration Program.  The grant will allow Hartford Performs to expand programs and services to ensure every Hartford Public School student has access to quality arts education.

In early December we were given the opportunity to do a workshop for the Hartford Board of Education to bring them up to date on our progress from the first 3 years of program implementation.  We were thrilled to be able to report gains on Connecticut Master Test (CMT) scores as confirmed by an independent analysis completed in December of 2013 by Public Consulting Group (PCG).  The PCG report on Impact from 2010 – 2013 went on to say that Students who have been in Hartford Performs schools for two and three years, performed better in reading, as a group, compared with their peers who have not. Students in schools that participated in Hartford Performs for three years experienced the most improvement on CMT Reading scores, followed by students in schools that have participated for two years.

Based on this data and overwhelmingly positive response on surveys from students, teachers and principals we asked the Board of Education to renew our contract and increase their level of support.  On December 19th, at the Hartford Board of Education’s regular meeting our contract extension and funding increase was approved with no opposition. 

With only a few days remaining before the year's end we received more good news.  In a press release sent to us by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. we learned that Hartford Performs and Hartford Public Schools were one of 11 Partnership teams from across the nation selected for the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program.  Our team is very excited about this selection and for the opportunity to go to Washington to share our best practices and learn from the other National standouts.

And last but not least, in a letter dated December 30th, 2013, we learned that Hartford Performs’ year-long quest to become an independent 501(c)3 Non-profit Organization was APPROVED by the Internal Revenue Service. 

Good, better, best, never let it rest.  Building on this wave of momentum we don’t planning on resting and look forward to expanding our partnerships, adding additional programs, and to reaching more and more students as we continue to inspire students’ success through the arts. 

So to all you bloggers out there feel free to share any and all of this news.  Hope you all have a successful and inspired year filled with your own good, better and best news to share.