Community Partnerships
Bridging the gap between local schools and their communities.
Collaboration
Community outreach and educational programming are essential to the growth and sustainability of cultural organizations. 3 Looms has extensive experience working with businesses on developing relationships with local schools and communities to bridge the gap and allow access for all to the cultural institution.
3 Looms is passionate about helping young people reach new heights in their artistic goals in service of greater levels of learning, and helping the adults who work with them problem-solve solutions and brainstorm new ideas.
Services Include:
Teaching Artist Training
Pre and Post Show Workshop Development
Resource Study Guides Based on Productions
If you have a specific need not listed here, we can customize plans to meet your goals and resources.
Creation and Implementation of Community Outreach and Education Programming
Support Show Selection that Fits Educational Needs
Support in Working with Local Schools
Navigating District/School Structures and Budgets
Experience Highlights
CCNY Graduate Program in Educational Theatre
Founded and served as Program Director for this innovative graduate program. The primary goal was to offer graduate students as many in-school and real-time teaching opportunities as possible, requiring the establishment of multiple community partnerships.
PS 161
Founded the middle school afterschool drama program through partnership with The City College of New York Graduate Program in Educational Theatre.
American Alliance for Theatre & Education
Worked with AATE to help develop organizational structures and clarity of purpose and mission. Focused on naming action steps to achieve organizational goals.
Starlight Youth Theatre
Drove their strategic growth plan in designing a theatre curriculum that catered to each grade segment (grades 1-3, 4-6, and 7-12). The program saw a significant increase in student retention through 12th grade. This grade segment, which was historically the smallest, became its most popular.
Theatre Fairfield
Created an internship in Teaching Artistry and worked in partnership with a local title one school district and the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University. Coordinated college internships to educate and create pre- and post-show workshops on the yearly theatre production, and facilitated those workshops in the partnering high schools.
Westport Country Playhouse
Coordinated college internships to educate and create pre- and post-show workshops on the yearly theatre production, and facilitated those workshops in the partnering high schools.
Once on This Island, The Musical
Wrote the Study Guide for Broadways Revival of Once on This Island.
Come From Away I am an Islander Project
Consulted for the Come From Away I am an Islander Project.
Case Study · Starlight Community Theatre
“Dr. Jennifer Katona has worked with Starlight for years as a choreographer but in 2013 she joined our team as curriculum advisor. We had just completed the musical “Little Mermaid” with a cast of 46 ranging from second to twelfth grade. It was a great show but the question out there was, are we meeting every single children’s developmental needs and are the older students being challenged?
That’s when Dr. Katona sat with us and helped us define our mission statement and articulate what our goals are for each student. This concluded with Dr. Katona laying out the lesson plans for two different age group shows. One for students 1-6th grade that was an hour junior production designed specifically for that age group and where the students who were 4-6th graders could take on lead roles. The second group would be for 7-12th graders, allowing them to present more challenging productions such as Les Miserable, Into the Woods, Newsies and Starlight Express on roller skates.
Dr. Katona held workshops for the teens on audition monologues for college applications, explored with them all the different career opportunities for a theater major and defined the difference between a BFA and a BA. She also arranged for a meet and greet with cast members of “Come From Away” in NYC.
Through the years, Jennifer’s guidance has been the rock we stand on especially now during Covid-19, as we learn how to do theater classes on Zoom. Today, because of Jennifer, we are holding 11 different Zoom theater classes and last spring our musical grew from a total of 46 students to 140, 78 in the younger group and 62 in the older group.
These examples are just a small drop in the ocean of knowledge and guidance Dr. Katona has shared with us, for which we will forever be thankful.”
- Starlight Community Theatre
What People Are Saying
“Too often we see a revolving door of low-impact school partnerships by organizations and individuals who want to save the world without getting their hands dirty. When I first came to PS161, the school had 40+ cultural arts partnerships, and even had made the news with recent school celebrity appearances by Yo Yo Ma and Beyonce. And yet, we were struggling to get real arts programming off the ground - the kind where kids are really singing, acting, dancing, designing, and developing as artists. That’s where Dr. Katona’s vision was different. She did not impose a program but worked with us to learn what our community needed and helped us build something immersive and authentic”
