Specializing in Creative Education Consultation
Jenn Katona, Ph.D. Founder and President 3 Looms
Jennifer Katona stepped on stage at eight years old and taught her first class at fourteen. Since then, she has spent her career advocating, researching, and teaching about the power and importance of arts education—and exploring what the arts can teach us about learning, connection, and community.
Dr. Katona began her career as a middle school theatre educator in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and worked as a teaching artist with cultural organizations throughout the New York City/tri-state area. She went on to serve as Founding Director and faculty of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at The City College of New York, CUNY. She later served as Senior Manager of Visual and Performing Arts and Federal Grants Manager for Norwalk Public Schools in Connecticut, and nationally as Executive Director of the Educational Theatre Association and President of the Educational Theatre Foundation.
Her contributions to the field extend beyond the positions she has held. Dr. Katona has served on numerous nonprofit and cultural arts boards and advisory committees, including as Board President of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, the NYC Arts Advisory Committee to the Mayor’s Office, the New York State Education Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Arts, and the Education Advisory Committee for A.C.T. of Connecticut. She has consulted with schools, districts, and cultural organizations across the country.
Dr. Katona holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy and is co-author of Immersive Arts Integration: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing a K–8 Model. Her current research focuses on supporting youth mental health and social connection through the arts and informs Urgent Optimism—her belief that the challenges facing young people and communities are urgent, but so is our capacity to address them. She has published and presented her research and led workshops and spoken nationally on arts education, arts integration, learning, leadership, and social connection.
Today, through 3 Looms Creative Education Consulting, Dr. Katona brings this breadth of experience to her work with schools and nonprofits, specializing in strategic planning, program design and evaluation, impact measurement, and grant development. She helps organizations understand where they are, articulate where they want to go, and build the strategy, programs, and evidence needed to get there.
What’s in a name?
The name 3 Looms is an homage to the influential work that started my journey into education over twenty years ago.
My first taste of how to liberate a classroom came from watching Dorothy Heathcote’s documentary, 3 Looms in Waiting. Dorothy famously would walk into a classroom and ask students, “What shall we do a play about today?”
Now while I recognize we cannot walk into a class and ask students what they want to learn, I strive to create environments that take us as close to learner-centered as possible. As close to allowing students to say, “This is what I would like to learn about today…”
The number 3 also signifies the three areas I am most passionate about:
I am passionate about supporting educators. I have nothing but admiration for educators and know all too well the challenge of the job. I want to provide support any way that I can.
I am passionate about working with schools and spreading the word on how powerful and impactful learning through the arts can be. I have seen schools transform time and time again, and I want to help all schools find this success.
I am passionate about building community partnerships. As a theatre artist myself, I love to collaborate and learn from others and to bring that collaborative spirit into my work with cultural organizations and community partners.
Lastly, I am proud mom of 3 wonderful kids who remind me everyday to be flexible, laugh, dance and enjoy our time together.