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This fall, the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s arts education program will operate under a new banner, the Nancy and Frederick DeMatteis Arts Academy, and strive to teach children acting, dancing and singing in a bigger and better way.
The programs, which will now be produced and run by the academy rather than an outside organization, will be led by 12 full-time faculty members, and the former one-week workshops will be replaced by long-term sessions.
“We are trying to cultivate the audiences of tomorrow,” explained Julienne Penza-Boone, executive director of arts education at the PAC. “Our mission is to provide high-quality arts education and build skills that they can use if they choose to go into the arts, but also provide them with life skills to build confidence for public speaking, for example.”
The PAC has run an active education program for years, but the center has engaged so many students—young and old—that it was time for a re-branding, Ms. Penza-Boone said.
“By the end of 2015, we will have engaged 600 kids here,” she said. “To us, it’s not a program—it’s an academy. Kids are coming all year-round, and they are building on their skills. It’s going from a program to an academy.”
For more information on the Nancy and Frederick DeMatteis Arts Academy, visit whbpac.org.
Jack Sullivan on Aug 18, 2015