Center for Creative Education | Kingston, NY

By KYLE WIND Daily Freeman staff - Published: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

KINGSTON — The nonprofit Center for Creative Education has received $18,600 in grants from the state Council on the Arts to bolster its work at the Carnegie Learning Center in partnership with the city school district as well as its own after-school activities, the organization’s executive director said Monday.

Evry Mann said $8,500 of the sum is slated for the center’s work at Carnegie to underwrite local teaching artists to work with high school staff during the school day. Plans in the works include radio productions, video documentaries, and outdoor art installations, he said.

The rest will supplement the center’s after-school activities, with $5,100 going toward scholarships for students needing assistance and $5,000 “to bring in established artists of international reputation to work with the Energy Dance Company and (the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston, or POOK),” he said.

Mann plans to bring in Nora Chipaumire, a New York City-based Zimbabwean choreographer and dancer, Montreal-based dancer and body percussionist Sandy Silva, and Haitian drummer Gaston Jean-Baptiste.

Under “a separate funding stream,” Mann said the Center for Creative Education is working on bringing the Dance Theater of Harlem to Kingston High School in the spring of 2012 for a combination kickoff event for the center moving into Carnegie and master classes and a performance at the school during the day.

Officials initially expected the center to move into Carnegie in early October. Electrical and flooring work is still ongoing in the evenings, however, and the school board and center are still finalizing a lease, part of which is expected to call for the Center for Creative Education to fundraise to avoid taxpayer impact from the $2.93 million construction project.

At this point, there is about $430,000 to go, and the district paid the first bill against the principal on Oct. 15. Mann, who initially hoped to have the fundraising finished by the time students began to use the building, said the fundraising climate is difficult, but “we’ve got a lot of stuff in the works, and we’re going to get it done.”

Article From Daily Freeman – Published: Saturday, October 01, 2011

KINGSTON — An open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the newly renovated Carnegie Learning Center on the Kingston High School campus on Broadway.

The overhaul of the city’s long-vacant former library was approved by Kingston school district voters in February 2009, and construction took about a year from when it began in the summer of 2010.

The building now serves as an arts and technology center for the high school and is used for some after-school activities.

Today’s open house will start with music by high school students and remarks by school district Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger, Board of Education President James Shaughnessy and Evry Mann, executive director of the Center for Creative Education, a non-profit group that is running after-school activities in the Carnegie building.

People can  “mull around” the building starting at 10:30 a.m., Gretzinger said, and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., high school Vice Principal Andrew Sheber, KSQ Architects consultants, students and teachers will provide tours of the center, which includes classrooms and computer labs.

From 11 a.m. to noon, high school music students will perform on the small stage in the building’s basement, and from noon to 1 p.m., Center for Creative Education members will perform there.

The Carnegie building was constructed in 1904 as a public library — one of 2,509 funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The Kingston school district has owned the building since 1978, when the Kingston Library moved to the former Sojourner Truth Elementary School building at 55 Franklin St., where it continues to operate today.

By KYLE WIND, Daily Freeman staff – Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

KINGSTON — The Center for Creative Education has recruited several teachers for a slate of after-school programs the nonprofit will run at the newly renovated Carnegie Learning Center Mondays through Thursdays starting this fall.

Evry Mann, executive director of the Center for Creative Education, said a full schedule and registration prices should be available at this Saturday’s open house for the Carnegie building, which is scheduled to run 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“The idea is that when students finish their classes at the high school, they can go over and do creative work at Carnegie,” said Mann.

After-school programs to be offered include Video Documentary with Ivy Roberts, who teaches at Bard and was involved with the popular Indie Programs filmmaking course when it was part of the Onteora school district’s curriculum, said Mann.

Mary Jane Nusbaum, a Rondout Valley art teacher who was involved with the district’s “From the Ground Up” wellness initiative, will teach Visual Arts, a mixed media class.

Stephanie Russo of the Ulster County YWCA, who is a local writer, will teach Creative Writing, said Mann, who added that she also planned to lead a Girl’s Club.

Quetzal Saunders, an artist who moved to the area from New York City, will teach Street Art, which Mann described as “non-gallery” art.

Amy Poux, an actress and director of the Ulster BOCES arts in education program, will teach the Acting Workshop; and Sophia Sciles of the Ulster BOCES New Visions program will teach the Theater Workshop, which Mann hopes will eventually develop original productions.

Kristen Flynn, a professional designer who teachers at Marist and Ulster County Community College, will teach Fashion Drawing and Design. Mann envisioned the effort turning into a “Kingston Project Runway.”

Other programs will include Music Composition utilizing computer software like Pro Tools and Garage Band; hip hop, ballet, and modern dance classes; and a Leadership and Apprenticeship Seminar. Mann also planned to offer students some open computer lab sessions in the evenings.

CCE’s new website is in progress. Thank you for your patience.

-Scarlet Duba, Duba Design, Kingston, NY