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The Sitar Arts Center: Bringing the Arts to Neighborhood Kids

Students performing at the Sitar Arts Center
Students performing at the Sitar Arts Center

There is a palpable energy that emanates from the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts, located in the heart of Adams Morgan. Founded in 1998, the Sitar Arts Center has successfully created a warm and nurturing environment that instills a sense of community into everyone who passes through its doors—just so long as you know where those doors are.

"There are two things that I hear from everyone who visits," said Ed Spitzberg, the Sitar Arts Center's Executive Director. "They say, 1. 'Wow, what a wonderful place,' and 2. 'I never knew this was here.'"

The Center moved into its current location, a colorfully decorated 10,700 square foot facility at 1700 Kalorama Road NW, in 2004. The dedicated staff and volunteers who work there offer a broad range of courses in the visual arts, dance, drama, creative writing, digital arts, and music. The Center has partnered with many of the area's finest institutions to provide instruction, ranging from The National Symphony Orchestra, to the Shakespeare Theatre Company, to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. But the bulk of the teachers are volunteers who offer their services on a weekly basis. These instructors must have at least three years of experience in their given field. Most have day jobs, but in past lives have spent a lot of time honing their craft and continue to be semi-professional artists.

"Many of our teachers say the hour they spend here is the best hour of their week," Spitzberg noted proudly.

The student body at the Sitar Arts Center, whose Spring semester begins today, has grown to approximately 480 students, a 50 percent increase from just last year. The students are generally between the ages of 6 and 18, and the vast majority live in the Adams Morgan/Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights area. In keeping with the Center's original mission, 80 percent of the students come from low-income households.

The surrounding neighborhood has seen an increase in youth violence in recent months. That fact, coupled with the increased enrollment, shows that there is an increasing need and demand for the safe environment organizations like the Sitar Arts Center can provide.

As Spitzberg put it, "There is a crew right up the street from us. The kids can go up the hill to the gang, or come down the hill to us."

Prospective students go through an intentionally intensive enrollment process. A parent must accompany the child, and provide a report card. Upon acceptance, both must sign an artistic agreement that promises regular attendance to class, as well as a minimum amount of practice outside of class. The Sitar Arts Center uses a sliding fee scale that starts as low as $15 per semester, per family, for unlimited classes and supplies. The Center incurs costs of $1000 per student, per semester. In order to recoup these costs, they employ a range of fundraising efforts, which have become all the more difficult in the current economic climate.

The Center is making a concerted effort to spread the word about the community it serves, and the community it is trying to build. There is always a need for volunteers and, particularly in these trying times, a need for money. In addition to relying on traditional advertising and word of mouth, the Center is starting to raise awareness through Facebook and other social networking sites.

"We want people to know that there is a warm, wonderful place right here in their community," Spitzberg said. "We're not only exposing young people to the arts, but we're also presenting a positive choice when there are so many negative ones."

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By Sriram Gopal in on February 9, 2009 12:03 PM

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