Episode 30: Museum EBT Card Program Opens the Door a Bit Wider

Carole Charnow, President and CEO of the Boston Children’s Museum, shares how since 2012 the museum has provided reduced admission to visitors with an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, the first program of its kind in New England.

Carole Charnow. Photo by Bethany Acheson.For over 30 years, Carole Charnow has led cultural non-profits in the US and the UK, overseeing over 100 professional theatrical and opera productions, and hundreds of community-based music and arts education programs and events.

Charnow was appointed the President and CEO of Boston Children’s Museum in 2010 and has leveraged her relationships to transform the Museum’s cultural programming. Under Charnow’s leadership the Museum won the 2013 IMLS National Medal, the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums and libraries for extraordinary service to the community, presented by First Lady, Michelle Obama at the White House.
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Episode 28: Empowering Youth to Fix the World Around Them

Enchanted Circle Theater is a community-based arts organization in Holyoke, MA, that works with students, teachers, and social services – in the mental health field, in the foster care world, everywhere and anywhere – using theater arts as a dynamic teaching tool. Executive Director Priscilla Kane Hellweg says they’re developing whole human beings, who can think creatively, act creatively, and solve problems creatively.

Priscilla Kane HellwegPriscilla Kane Hellweg is the Executive Director of Enchanted Circle Theater (ECT), a non-profit, multi-service arts organization in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  She has written, directed, and performed educational theater, and taught arts integrated curricula extensively throughout New York and New England for over thirty years.  Under Hellweg’s direction, Enchanted Circle has become the regional leader in arts integration, working district-wide in public schools throughout Western Massachusetts, and collaborating with over 60 community partner organizations, developing work that bridges arts, education and human services.
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Episode 27: Projecting & Reflecting on Cultural Heritage

Susan Chinsen, Establishing Director of the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), says film festivals can be powerful tools to engage the public and spark important – sometimes tricky – conversations. She discusses a key goal of BAAFF – to build community amongst Asian Americans by providing a forum to gather, connect, and take pride in  their shared heritage and experiences as their stories are told on the big screen.

Susan ChinsenSusan Chinsen received a BA from Tufts University in American Studies with a focus on Media and Asian Americans. In 2013, she joined the Chinese Historical Society of New England as the Managing Director, focusing on documenting, promoting, and preserving the experiences of Chinese in the region – with a primary focus on Boston’s Chinatown. She is the establishing director of the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), a project of Asian American Resource Workshop, seeking to use
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Episode 26: The Potency of Teaching Artistry

Eric Booth, one of the foremost experts in the world on teaching artists, speaks about the field and craft of teaching artistry. He says while teaching artists are recognized as learning catalysts – by the education, business, and healthcare sectors (to name a few) – there continue to be insufficient growth pathways to support the expertise that’s been developed by this global workforce.

Eric BoothIn 2015 Eric Booth was given the nation’s highest award in arts education, and was named one of the 50 most important people in the arts in the U.S. He began as a successful Broadway actor, and became a businessman (his company became the largest of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years), and has authored six books and over 40 published articles. He has been on the faculty of Juilliard (12 years), Tanglewood (5 years), The Kennedy Center (20 years), and Lincoln Center Education (for 34 years, where now he is the leader of their Teaching Artist Development Lab).
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