Green Street Arts Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Adam Kubota, Press & Marketing Coordinator
(860) 685-2806 or akubota@wesleyan.edu
Photos available on request.

Middletown, Conn., February 6, 2007-Lex Leifheit, Assistant Director of the Green Street Arts Center, has been elected as one of sixteen national delegates to the Emerging Leaders Council of Americans for the Arts. Americans for the Arts is an organization with more than 5,000 members that provides dedicated research, professional development, advocacy, visibility and partnership opportunities as part of a strategic plan to inform and affect arts practice and policy in America.

Leifheit is assistant director in charge of evening and weekend events at the Green Street Arts Center, a project of Wesleyan University founded in partnership with the City of Middletown, CT, and the North End Action Team to serve as an anchor for the revitalization efforts underway in Middletown's poorest neighborhood. She served as interim assistant director at Green Street from November 2005 through February 2006, during which time Green Street saw a 60 percent enrollment increase in its adult and home-school classes.

In addition to her responsibilities as assistant director, Leifheit teaches playwriting for Green Street's arts after school program; hosts a weekly talk show called The Art Agenda on 88.1 WESU FM; and serves as vice president for the North End Artist Cooperative, an affordable housing project for artists. She was the Communications Director for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center from 2001 to 2004, and press and Marketing Coordinator for Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts from 2004 to 2006.

Leifheit recently completed her M.A. in liberal studies at Wesleyan and holds a B.F.A. in performance from Drake University.

For more information on the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Program, visit: http://www.artsusa.org/services/emerging%5Fleaders/default.asp

The Green Street Arts Center, which opened in January 2005, is an initiative of Wesleyan University developed in collaboration with the City of Middletown and the North End Action Team to provide an anchor for the revitalization efforts already underway in the North End. Programming in the former schoolhouse at 51 Green Street includes a vibrant after school program and a wide range of affordable classes and workshops for children and adults in music, dance, visual arts, theater, sound recording, media arts and creative writing.

Participation at Green Street is open to everyone; tuition assistance is available. To receive more information about the Green Street Arts Center, call 860-685-7871 or visit www.greenstreetartscenter.org.

GSAC Phone:     (860) 685-7871                  Address:   Green Street Arts Center
E-mail:         gsac@wesleyan.edu                                    51 Green Street
                                                                                      Middletown, CT 06457