Skip to main content

FOURTEEN PIANOS: A Blueprint for Hope in the HeART of Trenton

by Jude Treder-Wolff

  In 2005, when Trenton NJ natives Jacquie and Sterick Ivey bought the Trenton Conservatory of Music – founded by Juilliard piano professor William O’Toole in 1920– there were 14 pianos still inside, along with original manuscripts of instructions books on piano technique,sheet music in abundance, and evidence the place was designed with the needs of musicians in mind. “Professor O’Toole believed that Trenton needed and deserved a music conservatory” Jacquie explained in an interview for this article, “and I took piano lessons here as a child.” When Sterick, who works in real estate, saw that the property was for sale the couple – parents of 2 girls, Makenzie age 7, and Peyton age 4 - made a commitment to bring back and expand upon O’Toole’s vision.
“The Trenton High School band used to be nationally competitive and now it is just hanging on” Jacquie states. “Having taken lessons here and knowing the value of the arts to kids’ lives and to the community, I wanted to get those instruments into kids’ hands. I wanted to rebuild that High School band.” But that’s not all they have in mind. Not even close.
Sterick & Jacquie Ivey
 “Within a 7.5 mile radius of the city, the entire world is represented in the population, but it is fragmented” the couple explain. “There are few opportunities for people to interact outside of their familiar group. We want to create a way for people to experience the foods, music, art and history of cultures different from their own, right here in Trenton. If people can’t travel and see the world,”Jacquie says with a smile, “we will bring the world to them.”
This is cutting edge thinking. Multi-cultural community centers are among the most highly recommended ways to create health and vitality in cities. Charles Landry, author of The Creative City: A Tool KitFor Urban Innovation and a world leader in designing cities that can survive and thrive in the 21st century, devised the Creative City Index which identifies diversity and expression, openness, trust, tolerance, accessibility – qualities that are natural by-products of the kinds of activities and events taking place at the Conservatory – as among the key indicators that a city will be resilient in difficult circumstances and creative in response to its problems. Research also shows a direct link between involvement in the arts and improved health and social life by:
  • Reducing isolation and helping people to make friends
  • Strengthening community networks and sociability
  • Increasing tolerance for differences, which contributes to conflict resolution
  • Expanding forums for intercultural understanding and friendship
  • Validating the contribution of a whole community
  • Increasing intercultural contact and co-operation
  • Enhancing positive contact between the generations



“We are right in the center of Trenton, walking distance from the train station,” Sterick says, emphasizing their location makes the Conservatory extraordinarily accessible for the greatest number of people. And since their grand opening earlier this year, some very interesting people have walked through those doors and become part of their evolving network of artists, teachers, and volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds. Jacquie gave up her position as a Pre-School Director to “step out in faith” and take on this project, her leadership here rooted in the values, skills, experiences that  resulted in her successful development of a large, culturally-rich, diverse staff. “We constantly meet such interesting, accomplished people who want to train others in an art form, teach their craft, give their gifts through performance, and we want to provide a nice, affordable venue for all these people to share their skills and abilities.”
     The original blueprints for the Conservatory were left inside the building along with those 14 pianos. If there is a blueprint for hope, the Iveys have that one, too.

  About CrAzYToWn: How do you know that nice, helpful guy in the next cubicle is a psychopath? You don’t. In Crazytown, real-life therapist/performer Jude Treder-Wolff takes you down the rabbit hole of belief that led to her being blind-sided by reality. It’s a comic take on an over-eager therapist getting over herself (when nothing else seemed to be working). And these days, when our phones are smarter than we are, and we can meet, fall in love, shop for a ring and get some counseling with someone and never meet them in person – it’s a cautionary tale about how authentic a completely fake person can be. MORE INFORMATION

    

        
      
  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Improvisation Games & Exercises For Developing Emotional Intelligence

    Since September Lifestage has been offering a monthly training workshop exploring the use of improvisation to develop Emotional Intelligence . These workshops have been geared toward the work done by clinicians, educators and trainers who guide the process of personal change or professional development, but as it turns out we have enjoyed some interesting diversity among the participants -  managers, business owners with both employees and customers, community activists, and performers.      Below is a collection of the exercises we have used in the workshops, accompanied by some studies that supports their use.  by Jude Treder-Wolff, LCSW, RMT, CGP       Why Improvisation? Improvisation is a powerful way to become aware of mental habits and patterns. Reflecting on our inner experiences after engaging in an improvisation exercise provides an opportunity to decide whether our mental habits are effective and useful or self-limiting and obsolete.  The tensions of the crea
67 comments
Read more

WARM-UP EXERCISES FOR GROUP WORK - For Therapeutic, Educational or Training Groups

Nicholas Wolff, LCSW, BCD, TEP , Director of Training at Lifestage, Inc and Jude Treder-Wolff, LCSW, RMT, CGP, Trainer/consultant and writer/performer. Follow on twitter @JuTrWolff         “To begin assembly one must have the right attitude,” goes a Japanese instruction for assembling a particular object, as quoted in Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance. The "right attitude" is one that best serves the action we are preparing to engage in, j ust as an athlete warms up his/her muscles before using them in the stress of a work-out or game. Psychological and emotional "muscles" that are properly warmed up will perform more effectively and make it less likely that we will experience strain or allow fear to produce a shut-out when things get rolling.     The right warm-up makes everything learned in a training situation or classroom more accessible and immediately useful to the trainee/student. New skills and knowledge - in education, personal growth or a profe
60 comments
Read more

Stories To Light Up The Night: An Interview With International Teacher/Trainer, Storyteller and Author Susan Perrow

        "It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all the internal materials of the mind and self. They become part of you while changing you." Ben Okri, Birds of Heaven Stories can change your life and when they do you almost never see it coming. The way a story gets into our consciousness is often subtle and suprising. Something about it sticks. And if we allow the story to do its work it sticks exactly where we need it. This is true of both receiving a story and making one. The skills required to weave together character, conflict and color to create a vivid and imagination-grabbing tale that is also transformative takes time, training and experience to develop. It helps to be familiar with the impact of stories on our own inner life, recovery and growth. It helps also to have an inspiring, gifted teacher to guide the process.        Such was my experience in April at a full-day wo
14 comments
Read more