Pentucket Arts Center has been delivering valuable and unique art learning experience for children of the Greater Haverhill region for the past FIFTEEN years! We are a volunteer-run, community-based nonprofit organization operating on the proverbial shoestring budget, while maintaining excellence in the quality of our programming and the efficiency of our our operations.
We know that dozens of children look forward each year to their "Adventures in Art" summer program at Veasey Park, and in the past fifteen years nearly 500 children have enjoyed this unique summer experience. The participants in our first "Adventures in Art" programs are now emerging adults! So many of them have shared their wonderful memories of creating art in a safe, stimulating, supportive environment. This should not surprise us. The mind-body-spirit connection in increasingly recognized as critical to the healthy growth and development of each person. No longer can our society afford to view art education as an expendable frill. Imagination, creativity, self-motivation and self-discipline, the ability to plan and execute projects, the ability to work independently as well as leading or participating in a team - these are the highly valued skills of today's knowledge worker!
"Adventures in Art" initially aimed to expand the awareness of art beyond the traditional academic focus on two-dimensional visual art. Moving art out of the frame, and removing the traditional western cultural boundaries to embrace the entire world of music, dance, costume, theater, sculpture, and yes, drawing and painting but perhaps on different media, or with different implements or techniques. The child would know that the world of art is far bigger and more exciting than coloring pictures in a coloring book, or making pre-fabricated art projects that all look the same. "Adventures in Art" helps the child to build skills and knowledge and to stay motivated and self-confident so that they can enjoy expressing their unique artistic vision.
In recent years the need for "Adventures in Art" has become even more urgent. With global branding and commercializing of childhood toys, entertainment, and so-called "edu-tainment" the child is becoming yet another "target demographic segment" to be exploited for profit. As a result, today's child often experiences commercial messaging nearly nonstop throughout their day. However it is very difficult to move a child "off the grid" for even short periods of time. Parents with heavy work responsibilities are rightly concerned about the safety of children left unsupervised in "latchkey" homes. Young children wandering their neighborhood or playing outdoors can be exposed to various potential threats to their safety. Remaining indoors, accompanied by electronic games, computers and television, too many of our children spend endless hours of "screen time." As schools are cutting back on art education due to budget constraints, the children have ever fewer chances to express themselves through art, to discover the power of different art forms and media, to create, make, and shape their real-world environments.
In 1996, the Haverhill Arts Commission (now called Haverhill Cultural Council) held a public hearing to determine the arts and culture needs of the community. From this meeting, a group of volunteers assembled to establish a new nonprofit organization. Peter Waldron, then chairman of the arts commission, became the new nonprofit's chairman of the board of directors. From 1997 through 2004, Susan Blim was employed as a parttime contractor to run programs for the nonprofit, which received administrative support from the City of Haverhill staff assigned to support the arts commission. Then in 2002, cutbacks in the city budget eliminated the administrative support position. From 2002 to 2004, Susan Blim was a halftime employee with the title Executive Director. After 2004, the nonprofit has operated with administrative support from a series of dedicated volunteers. Until 2004, Pentucket Arts Center operated an art gallery and provided art classes for children and adults at 57 Wingate Street in downtown Haverhill. Due to increased costs (mainly rent and insurance), decreased grant funding (tied to the overall diminishment of public and private arts funding sources), and a difficult fund-raising climate (with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, followed by increasingly difficult economic situation), the gallery had to be closed, and operating with paid staff became no longer feasible. Fortunately the "Adventures in Art" summer program at Veasey Park has remained popular and we have been able to continue as a volunteer-run nonprofit, paying our art teachers a modest stipend as temporary contractors for their several weeks of significant and dedicated effort. It should be noted that until 2008, Haverhill's service clubs, including especially the Rotary, Exchange, and Kiwanis clubs, as well as the banks Pentucket Bank and Haverhill Bank, have provided charitable grants to support scholarship aid for needy children.
It is hoped that soon (in 2012?) we will be able to re-expand our organization to pursue fundraising efforts. That would enable us to offer tuition waiver or reduction for economically challenged families, however at this time we do not have that option. "Adventures in Art" runs on a very lean, tight budget, and we are only able to continue with the donation of many volunteer hours. In the future, as economic conditions improve, our fundraising and volunteer recruitment goals will be aimed at regaining the ability to provide some assistance including transportation for families who would otherwise be unable to participate in "Adventures in Art." It might also be possible to expand the program from its current two weeks, up to four or even six weeks as in the past. Beyond these goal, we would like to be able to serve the community's additional needs for arts programming, perhaps to include a re-opening of our art gallery space to showcase the range of artists who are actively working in our community. To do this, we would require an affordable, safe, and accessible location in downtown Haverhill. All these positive goals will be pursued at some time in the future. For today, we are focused on delivering "Adventures in Art" summer program at Veasey Park with the highest quality possible on a sustainable financial footing.
Since 2004, the board of directors for Pentucket Arts Center has consisted of two volunteers: Peter Waldron, founder and president, and Catherine Waldron, vice president/treasurer and volunteer managing director. For a future expansion to become feasible, we will need to recruit additional volunteer board members willing to make significant financial and time commitments to the organization over a period of at least several years, with the willingness and skills to establish and execute a sustainable economic model for each program or project.
New Board Members will be recruited when the economy recovers sufficiently to support expanded fundraising and programming. We would like to have an active, working board including mainly the parents of children in the Summer Program. Board members must be able and willing to contribute both time and money to ensure the organization's future. No member of the board may accept any financial remuneration from Pentucket Arts Center. The art teachers and director of the summer program are paid for their work, they are not eligible to be members of the board of directors. All non-teaching administrative duties are performed by unpaid volunteers. Thank you for considering this request to become involved. If interested, please complete the contact form on this website, or call me at home in the evenings, 978-374-1656. For those of you who have already contacted me, thank you and I look forward to working with you when we re-launch the board at some future date. Thank you!
Pentucket Arts Center is a non-profit organization based in Haverhill, MA founded in 1996. We support and develop arts programming for the Greater Haverhill area.
To Learn More: Contact Volunteer Managing Director Catherine Waldron at 978-374-1656 or email
pentucketartscenter@earthlink.net.
