HartBeat Ensemble Announces NEA Grant, Plus Artistic & Educational Expansion

HartBeat Ensemble announced today an educational and artistic expansion of the 21 year old theatre company. Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, HartBeat Ensemble welcomes Jeanika Browne-Springer to its staff in the newly-created educational role of Director of LifeLong Learning. In addition, the company, Hartford's only theatre dedicated to Social Justice and Anti-Racism also announced it is substantially expanding its ensemble membership with sixteen new artists.

After on-boarding new artistic and managerial leadership over the past two years, HartBeat Ensemble applied for a National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan Grant to identify and hire an emerging leader from the local artistic community to-in partnership with the Artistic and Managing Directors-define, develop and deliver a bold and innovative program of LifeLong Learning events. The NEA received 7,500 applications for this highly competitive grant with HartBeat being selected as one of 600 beneficiaries nationwide. After considering several highly-qualified candidates, HartBeat Ensemble announced the selection of East Hartford resident and local creative Jeanika Browne-Springer as its Director of LifeLong Learning.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 when the NEA was provided $135 million for the arts sector. The funding for organizations is the third installment providing more than $57.7 million for arts organizations. In April 2021, the NEA announced $52 million (40 percent) in ARP funding would be allocated to 62 state, jurisdictional, and regional arts organizations for regranting through their respective programs. The second installment in November 2021 allocated $20.2 million to 66 local arts agencies for subgranting to local artists and art organizations.

HartBeat's LifeLong Learning, a program that includes a new Anti-Racism Forum Theater series - long-term, intensive residencies in Hartford's public schools and community-based organizations -- as well as our flagship youth arts workforce program Youth Play Institute (YPI), among others. Browne-Springer will play a key role in helping the company to actualize its learning and community programs that are intentionally centered around anti-racism as well as establish new and increased earned revenue streams for the company.

Jeanika Browne-Springer has a Bachelors Degree from Trinity College in Theater & Dance and a Masters in Education from Saint Joseph University in the Multiple Intelligences. As a second grade teacher for the past six years and a supporter of local creatives, she transitioned into the non-profit sector at Hartford Performs as a grant writer and programmer, helping artists find work in Hartford schools and teachers to write curriculum with arts integration in mind. Most recently she performed in Hartford's Night Fall and now serves as a board member for the non-profit. In addition, Ms. Browne-Springer has appeared in staged readings for HartBeat Ensemble's Women's Theater Festival (WTF!) and The Investigation. She is also a member of the Artists of Color Unite!, an advisory group for Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Ensemble Expansion

HartBeat Ensemble has been part of the global ensemble theatre movement since its founding in 2001. The Network of Ensemble Theaters defines an ensemble as "a group of individuals dedicated to collaborative creation, committed to working together consistently over years to develop a distinctive body of work and practices." Intentionally created as part of this movement by founders Julia Rosenblatt, Steve Raider-Ginsburg and the late Gregory Tate, HartBeat Ensemble is experiencing the largest moment of artistic growth in its history with the addition of sixteen new ensemble members to a total of 23.

Artistic Director Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. states, "We're redefining the notion of ensemble - each HartBeat Ensemble artist is also a master teaching artist and facilitator. We are actors and musicians; healers and administrators; activists and writers; regional luminaries and international practitioners. I believe an ensemble is not only a conduit for scintillating political performances that represent its community - it is a promise to create a space for community members to see, interrogate and heal themselves. We feel like this ensemble can be one of Hartford's cultural centers leading us all toward the Beloved Community."

The expanded roster of ensemble artists includes Jasmin Agosto (CT, curator/producer of upcoming La Sala Femme), Vanessa R. Butler (NY, visual artist, actor in Jimmy & Lorraine, Queens For A Year and Book of Gwen), Helen T. Clark (CT, actor, Sleepover Stories, Youth Play Institute or YPI teaching artist), Brianna Ford (NY, teaching artist, actor in HartBeat's upcoming My Children! My Africa!), Ginieris Garcia (NY, director of Sleepover Stories, playwright, Anti-Racism Forum), Charmagne Glass-Tripp (CT, singer, producer and host of HartBeat's Play Like a Girl), Vernice Miller (NY, actor, director of upcoming Bee Trapped Inside the Window, co-director of Book of Gwen), Wi-Moto Nyoka (PA, playwright for WTF! and Sleepover Stories), Joel Oramas (CT, teaching artist, actor in Ebeneeza, Pegao), Jelani Pitcher (NY, teaching artist, actor in My Children! My Africa!), Laugh Sanchez (CT, poet/actor, YPI teaching artist, actor in Anti-Racism Forum), Marilyn Torres (NY, actor/playwright, Rumble in the Theater), Tonille Watkis (CT, playwright for WTF!, actor in Book of Gwen), Joann Yarrow (NY, director of community engagement and education for Syracuse Stage, former executive artistic director of Teatro Prometeo), Zulynette (CT, poet/visual artist, A Little Bit of Death, YPI teaching artist), and the aforementioned Jeanika Browne-Springer.

The new members join veteran ensemble members Brian Jennings, Cin Martinez, Steve Raider-Ginsburg, Julia Rosenblatt, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Hannah Simms, and Debra Walsh.

HartBeat Ensemble will be announcing its 2022 season in the coming weeks. For more information, visit HartBeatEnsemble.org.