Back to News Archive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lex Leifheit, Press and Marketing Coordinator
860-685-2806 • lleifheit@wesleyan.edu

The Green Street Arts Center and the North End Action Team Present
Wednesday Night ARTS IN THE GARDEN,
July 19 Through August 15 in Middletown

Middletown, CT, July 10, 2006— Enjoy the pleasure of a summer evening during Arts in the Garden, a five-week series of participatory arts workshops and performances held outdoors in the Mary Susan Gawlak Memorial Garden at the Green Street Arts Center (51 Green Street, Middletown). Working in collaboration with the North End Action Team, the Center will offer free, fun activities for all ages, ranging from scarecrow building, to jewelry making, to found-object percussion. Several of the workshops feature the GSAC’s teaching artists, in advance of their fall classes! All events will run from 5:30 to 6:30pm, and light refreshments will be served. For more information call 860-685-7871.

Upcoming Arts in the Garden Workshop and Performance Schedule:
 

All Arts in the Garden activities take place on Wednesdays from 5 to 6:30.

GSAC Teaching Artist Bios
In addition to musical performances and visual arts exhibitions, Scott Kessel’s professional experiences include developing and teaching multi-disciplinary arts and academics programs, presenting teacher in-service workshops and working extensively with special needs populations. A teacher in public schools, private schools and prisons for over eight years, Scott holds Connecticut teacher certification in art (K-12), and has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree from Wesleyan University. He is a certified Master Teaching Artist and has received the “Celebration of Excellence” award for his teaching.

Kwaku Kwaakye “Martin” Obeng, master drummer/percussionist from Ghana, has taught at Brown University for more than a decade with a focus on combining African traditional music and the sensibilities of jazz improvisioners, putting the rhythm at the center. Obeng's range of Afrijazz styles testifies to his open-mindedness. 

Gwen Stengel Pond is a Music Alive! teacher with an extensive background in vocal studies and performance and in musical theatre.  Pond holds an ARC (Alternate Route to Certification) certificate for K-12 music education in the State of Connecticut. She has directed children’s musicals and a youth choir in addition to composing original songs and collaborative songs with her her mother, children’s author Joyce Stengel.  Pond received her BA in English from the University of Connecticut and has begun working towards a graduate degree in music through a consortium program at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music, Trinity College and Hartford College for Women. 

About the Green Street Arts Center
The Green Street Arts Center offers a dynamic array of workshops, events and classes where people of any age and arts background are welcome. The three-story brick building contains performance and dance studios, computer and videography labs, wet and dry arts workshops and a sound recording studio.

The GSAC is a project of Wesleyan University, founded in partnership with the City of Middletown and the North End Action Team (NEAT) to create an anchor for arts activity, community engagement and economic development in the North End. Programming includes an after-school program and classes in music, dance, theater, visual arts, sound recording, videography and creative writing.   

To receive a catalog or find out more about the GSAC, call 860-685-7871 or visit http://www.greenstreetartscenter.org.

#  #  #