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Boston Public Library and JazzBoston Partner to Bring After-School Program to Branches
April 29,
2008
In April 2008, the Boston Public Library in partnership with JazzBoston launched an innovative after-school pilot program to engage young people in exploring the life of their community through the medium of jazz. Supported by a $5,000 grant from the Boston Public Library Foundation, the program aims to spark children’s appreciation of jazz as part of their heritage and culture, whether or not they are musicians.
“The Boston Public Library Foundation is intensely focused on helping the BPL enrich its offerings to children. The JazzBoston project is a terrific program that we are proud to be able to fund,” said Ronald P. O’Hanley, the Foundation’s chairman.
“Educating audiences of all ages about the music is at the heart of JazzBoston’s mission,” Pauline Bilsky, the organization’s Executive Director, said. “We are very excited about our partnership with the BPL to create a model after-school program that we hope will grow into a year-round resource for the City’s public library system.”
Called “Connect the Dots” to highlight the way music, words, and images can be used to tell the living story of jazz in a community, the program is led by two master teachers and performers, Arni Cheatham and Bill Lowe, recruited by JazzBoston for their extensive experience developing jazz curricula for young people. It debuted with a series of four weekly workshops at the Library’s Codman Square and Dudley branches and will conclude during Jazz Week (April 26 – May 4) with a joint performance by the children and musicians at the Dudley Branch Library on May 1 at 6 p.m.
Led by a 60-member Board of Directors, representing Boston's business and community leaders, the Boston Public Library Foundation has raised more than $70 million since its inception and has greatly enhanced the visibility of the Library and all it offers to the citizens of Boston, New England and beyond.
JazzBoston is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to building and serving audiences for jazz music, expanding performance opportunities for jazz musicians, and raising Boston’s profile as a jazz city — a city that is a magnet for fans and musicians from all over the United States and the world. For more information, please visit www.jazzboston.org.
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Prepared by the Boston Public Library's
Communications Office. For more information about news, programs and events at the BPL,
call 617-859-2212 or send a message to the Communications Office. |
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