WHY DO THIS?  WHAT DOES THIS AREA NEED?

 

Central CT will benefit from the year-round programs of the Meriden ArtsTrust, Inc. (MAT)’s MUSIC: Shared Experiences (M: SE) with M: SE’s vision of cooperation between music makers, choruses and orchestras of all ages, music instruction, festivals, musical gardens, wellness/healthy living through music, and therapy animals.  We will build Arts & Humanities: Shared Experiences (A & H: SE), a custom designed performing arts and event center.

 

• To create a permanent place for civic music with age-appropriate high quality instruction for all, 12 months a year.  Lack of a permanent location was fatal to the previous youth orchestra even though it was successful for 7 years.

 

• M: SE fills real needs.  We surveyed similar programs in CT.  M: SE sets itself apart offering high quality music instruction and fully integrating music and the humanities.  None of the other somewhat similar programs are close enough to compete for the same membership and donations.  Public school budgets are eliminating the arts, going from STEAM to STEM (no Arts).  Technical high schools and community colleges do not have music programs at all. 

 

• M: SE needs its own building because the lack of our own location was fatal the youth orchestra program that ran successfully for 7 years. 

 

• Studies show students involved in school music programs are more likely to continue on to college, even in fields other than music.  22% of MAT’s students and 35% of Music by Roberta students went on to study and have careers in music.

 

• Sixty percent of visitors to CT come for arts and cultural offerings.  We will create another destination location, enhance civic engagement, and boost the local economy.

 

• Connecticut’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $797.3 million in annual economic activity in the state, supporting over 23,000 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $72.3 million in local and state government revenues.

 

• “The arts are a fundamental component of a thriving economy.  From a numbers perspective, the arts generate jobs, cultural tourism, and economic impact.  Less quantifiable but equally as valuable, arts help create community identity and vibrancy and are critical to attracting AND retaining an innovative workforce.”  (Kristina Newman-Scott, CT Office of the Arts, CT Dept. of Economic and Community Development).

 

• M: SE will create 20 new part time jobs in the first year in a Women-owned Not-for-Profit Small Business.

 

• What sets M: SE apart is that our programs focus on instruction, and we are the only ones leveraging the numerous quantifiable benefits by integrating all of the arts and humanities together through music. 

 

• Music is more than singing songs by rote or rushing to play music for competitions.  The cognitive benefits of formal music study are too numerous to include here.  Music benefits people’s hearts, minds, souls, intellects, and the economy. 

 

• Students who cannot afford or have no access to private teachers, are not as successful preparing on their own to audition for higher music education, and even high school programs such as Regional, Statewide, Northeast, and National Choral and Orchestra Programs. M: SE will meet those needs.

​​

• Young children are not introduced sufficiently to pitch and rhythm.  Many cannot match a note, hold a tune, or tap out a rhythm.  These abilities relate later to listening, language development, spatial orientation, math skills, and improved academic engagement. 

 

• Adults are not yet given the opportunity to continue to play or sing in ensembles that M: SE will create. 

​​

• M: SE is the only source of civic music outside of school curricula that will provide supervised and instructed extra practice, composition time, audition prep, and recording resources for ensemble students. 

 

• There is not yet a building dedicated to the teaching, health, and wellbeing of musicians.  A & H: SE will create a network for “MUSIC: Shared Experiences” and a home for lovers and makers of music along with like-minded partners who value how Arts, Humanities, Music study, and performance benefit every area of our lives.  Our House will even become an affiliate of museums, such as the CT Historical Society, displaying loaned artwork for more teaching context in music and humanities. 

​