Activities will take place over a 10-week period, October 9-December 14, at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Main Street and at Macdonough School on Spring Street. The series includes music and dance classes for children and adults, a family series of participatory events and a series of concerts. A number of the offerings are free, with other programs priced affordably with financial assistance available.

These programs are the first in a series of pilot programs designed to build momentum for the establishment of the Green Street Arts Center at 51 Green St., for which the University is currently fund raising. The center is slated to open in the fall of 2004.

"The Green Street Arts Program reflects the world arts curriculum at Wesleyan and we have worked to attract the highest caliber of teacher, many of whom have Wesleyan affiliations," said Pamela Tatge, director of Wesleyan's Center for the Arts. "The program builds on needs and interests we identified through the Ferry Street Community Garden's summer Arts in the Garden series and the work done by Wesleyan students in mentoring programs. We hope this program will give the community a taste of what is to come once the center has been built."

Activities for young children range from "Music Alive!"-a morning class aimed at introducing preschoolers and their caregivers to a variety of musical activities-to Saturday dance classes for kindergarteners and first-graders. Second-graders to fifth-graders can enroll in Wednesday afternoon after-school arts and mentoring programs that focus on either world music or dance. In addition, the mentoring programs will offer homework assistance from Wesleyan students. Middle school students will have the opportunity to take an urban funk class, focusing on hip hop and jazz dance.

There will be three classes open to high school students and adults: West African drumming, West African dance, and the Green Street Band World Fusion Workshop. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to play their own Western and non-Western instruments and explore improvisation, composing, and arranging new music.

The Green Street Arts Program will also present the Green Street Family Series, five 90-minute participatory events on Saturday afternoons throughout the fall at the Church of the Holy Trinity. These events are presented free of charge, but space is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Programs include an Oct. 12 participatory dance workshop (1 p.m.), an Oct. 26 introductory Haitian dance class (2 p.m.), a Nov. 16 "bleach bottle banjo" instrument-making workshop (2 p.m.), a Nov. 23 comic strip instruction workshop (2 p.m.), and a Dec. 14 workshop on modern hieroglyphic printmaking (1 p.m.).

Three Saturday evening concerts will be presented as part of the Green Street Arts Program at Macdonough School this fall. Tickets cost $5 for adults; $2 for children; and free for children under the age of one. Tickets will be available only at the door. The cost for a family is $15 maximum per show. The price includes a pizza dinner courtesy of the Macdonough School P.T.O.

The Great Performers at Macdonough series includes "Dance! Rhythm! Dance!" on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 6 p.m. Mickey Davidson will introduce audiences to African and African-American folk dance, the Lindy Hop, swing, hip hop, and other dances. Fiddler-singer Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem will lead an evening of blues, swing and folk music on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. Arbo has toured with Joan Baez and is a freelance writer/editor for magazines such as Family Fun and Acoustic Guitar. The final concert will be "A Gospel Evening with Ebony Singers" on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 6 p.m. The Ebony Singers, Wesleyan's gospel choir conducted by Pastor Marichal Monts, is noted for its sold-out performances.

For information about the Green Street Arts Program or to request a free brochure, please call the program office at the Center for the Arts at (860) 685-2383.

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