Eight years ago one Middletown community planted a seed of hope for revitalizing their neighborhood. This seed finally came to fruition on Jan. 5 when the Green Street Arts Center (GSAC), located at 51 Green Street, officially opened. The arts center was initially suggested in a city-planning meeting in 1997 as an idea to help restore the north end of Main Street.
Middletown Mayor Domenique Thornton, GSAC Director Ricardo Morris, GSAC Assistant Director Manny Rivera, Wesleyan University President Doug Bennet, North End Action Team President Peggy Busari, and over 250 members of the community were in attendance for the ribbon cutting of the arts facility, located on the grounds of the former St. Sebastian School.
“I couldn’t imagine [this] in a million years,” Busari was quoted in the Middletown Press. “It’s just a good feeling to see it standing here now,” she said.
GSAC is currently offering an extensive curriculum in music, literary arts, performing arts and visual arts. Some of the classes offered this spring are Videography, Bomba Drumming, Afro-Carribean Doll Making, Playwriting, Digital Photography, Memoir writing, Sculpting, and Jazz Jam. These classes are open to children, adults and families.
An integral part of GSAC is the center’s after-school program for Middletown students in grades 3-12. As part of the center’s effort to be an instrumental leader in the neighborhood’s revitalization, GSAC is reserving 45 of the available 90 seats in the after-school program for students who live in the north end.
Many Wesleyan students and University staff members from the Office of Community Service and Office of Community Partnerships volunteer at the GSAC’s after-school program.
“The kids just have so much energy that I always enjoy working with them,” said Ilana Matfis ’05, who volunteers as a teaching assistant. Over 50 students are currently enrolled in the after-school program, which offers an interdisciplinary workshops lead by professional arts instructors and Wesleyan volunteers.
Many volunteers also tutor the GSAC students in subjects they are learning in their school classrooms.
“We are teaching assistants but sometimes the nature of our work requires us to be much more,” said Natalia Ortiz ’05. “When one of the kids comes in and has had a bad day or is feeling uncomfortable with their looks, you also have to be there as a friend and help them through those difficult moments.”
One of the unique features of the after-school program is the town hall meeting that the GSAC holds each Friday. At the town hall meeting all kids who participate in the after-school program congregate in the performance hall and discuss the ins and outs of the program, which encourages each of the kids to be included in its development.
So far the after-school program has held two town hall meetings. In the first meeting the students as a group composed a list of rules and regulations they felt were appropriate. The second meeting was held this past Friday, where students revised the rules from the first meeting to make them more positive.
Ortiz, who facilitated the exercise, said that it was important to make the rules more optimistic.
“Instead of emphasizing what the students shouldn’t do, the regulations should emphasize what they should do,” Ortiz said. “Instead of saying ‘no yelling’ we should say ‘Speak in a reasonable tone always for everyone to hear the instructor,’” Ortiz said.
“We held our breath until the kids showed up,” Morris said to the Middletown Press at the facility’s grand opening. “We were not sure if they would remember to come back after the [Christmas] break. It’s sort of like the old saying, ‘if they build it, they will come. They did and they will continue to come.”
To contact the Green Street Arts Center about volunteering or classes call 860-685-7871 or visit www.greenstreetartscenter.org.