Events

Fall 2010 Symposium

Creating Leaders for Arts Advocacy:
The Arts, The Common Core Curriculum, and 21st-Century Skills

Worcester Technical High School, 1 Skyline Drive, Worcester Massachusetts
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM

Click here to register for this event.

For schedule and more information about this symposium, please click here.

About Our Presenters and Guests…
Belle Halpern, Founding Partner, The Ariel Group
Belle Linda Halpern, Ariel Group Founding Partner and Co-author of Leadership Presence: Dramatic Techniques to Reach Out, Motivate, and Inspire, brings the skills of a professional consultant, speaker, educator, and singer/actress to her work. Belle has developed and delivered leadership programs for executives in the US, Europe, and Asia for the past 15 years. Her clients include Boston Consulting Group, General Electric, and American Express. She has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, the Boston Globe,
Harvard Management Communication Letter, and on CNBC.

As a cabaret singer, Belle has performed in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Paris, Munich, and the hill towns of Northern Italy. Belle has designed an innovative methodology for teaching singing to non-singers and has worked with students at Harvard University, Longy School of Music, and the Roy Hart Theatre in France. Combining her singing talent with her work in leadership, she has delivered combination cabaret/lectures on leadership at the annual meetings for organizations such as INSEAD, Instructional Services Association, Johnson & Johnson, Capital One, and Ericsson. A Harvard University graduate, Belle lives in Boston with her husband, Mitch, and two children.

Gail Zarren, Project Director, Healing Arts for Kids, Young Audiences of Massachusetts
Gail Zarren is a long-standing advocate of the arts and arts education. A senior arts program director, she has developed numerous art programs, workshops and events for prek-12 schools and community organizations throughout the state of Massachusetts. Gail is the founder of the Young Audiences of Massachusetts Healing Arts for Kids, a program that provides teaching artist residencies and performances for physically and emotionally challenged children and other special education populations in hospital schools, hospitals
and homeless shelters.

In 2010 Healing Arts of Kids was one of ten programs in the nation to receive the “Arts Connect All” grant from MetLife Foundation and VSA Arts.

Sonia Chang-Diaz is the first Latina woman elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, serving her first term representing various Boston neighborhoods. Currently, Sonia serves as the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, vice-chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business committee, as a member of the Education, Elder Affairs, Housing and the Municipalities and Regional Government committees, and is Co-Chair of the newly formed Cultural Caucus. Prior to attaining elected office, Sonia served as public school teacher in the Lynn and
Boston school systems, where she learned first-hand the challenges facing our public school students, teachers, and parents and the role our state government can play in improving our educational system.

Kay Khan is the State Representative for the 11th Middlesex District in Newton
serving her eighth term. She has been a leading voice for affordable and compassionate
health care, public education, housing and human services. Kay strongly promotes better transportation and a healthier environment. She has also been the legislature’s leading advocate for progressive policies for incarcerated individuals, including women and their children. Kay co-founded the Newton cultural Alliance, a coalition of non-profit arts and cultural organizations. She is the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Children,
Families and Persons with Disabilities, Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, and a member of the Joint Committee on Health Care Finance and the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. She is a member of numerous caucuses, including the Cultural Caucus in the MA Legislature.

Marianne O’Connor, Superintendent of Schools, Westborough, Massachusetts, just recently assumed her position as superintendent after serving 18 years in the Westborough
Schools as teacher, principal, director of curriculum, and deputy superintendent.

Brian A O’Connell is currently serving his 14th two-year term on the Worcester School Committee; he is also business manager for the Winchendon public schools, and is an attorney.