You are new not just to Friends School, but to Virginia Beach as well. What brought you to us?

In 2009 I, along with my husband Larry (VBFS’s Advancement Director), retired from running a good-size performing arts program in 2009. Living near sand and surf has always been attractive to us. Having grown up coming to Virginia Beach, specifically Sandbridge, we began to look seriously at relocating to this area. Teaching, arts management, fund raising and marketing are our combined skills, and quite by accident, we found Friends School, where we thought our skills could be put to good use. Larry and I like to help build things—both quantitatively and qualitatively. We were attracted to spirit-led values in Quaker education. Also, having worked with countless administrators in both public and private education over the years, we were impressed by Ed Hollinger’s vision and knowledge of education.

Tell us about your experiences at SPARC in Richmond.

I was making my living in Virginia as a working actor, voice-over & on-camera talent and acting teacher, based in Richmond when a friend asked me to join her in starting a performing arts program. I became one of the founding instructors of SPARC (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community), which we created with a dozen students in a tiny space above an office suite, in 1981. Over the years I became executive, then artistic director. When I retired in 2009, the school was in a new permanent home, had a $1.3 million budget and was serving close to 10,000 students in a varietyof programs, including a statewide playwriting competition and a poetry recitation contest with national legs. I am probably proudest of all the young people’s lives I have touched. My students have included 40 or so national level talents, including Broadway veteran Emily Skinner (who’s currently in BillyElliott) and pop recording artist Jason Mraz, both of whom have done amazing things with their gifts and training. All students are not necessarily going to be Emilys or Jasons, however. Some will follow the path of performing arts and countless others will use those wonderful skills to build self esteem and become better communicators. It is such a joy to “turn on the light” in a student and help them shine with respect to social and presentation skills. The data is in: Performance training changes lives, whether the student ends up on Broadway, in a research hospital or leading a classroom. An ability to present can mean being accepted into the college of their choice, or getting the job they want. As Artistic Director of SPARC, I was fortunate to have worked with community leaders who helped me develop an effective board, use my skills to help raise money and smartly grow the organization to become Virginia’s largest community-based theater training program for young people. I am grateful for their mentorship, while working for such a good cause.

Have you always been involved in theater?

Yes. As an actor, an on-camera and voice-over talent, a teacher and an administrator. If pushed to say which area I enjoy most it would be close between acting and teaching, but I would probably say teaching, simply because of a teacher’s tremendous potential to accentuate the positive and redirect the negative in the life of a student—whether they’re a child or an adult. For me there is such joy in this process. I won’t deny it, though. I’d still like to return to some acting.

Tell us a bit about FriendsArts; where it is now, and where you plan to take it.

In five short months, we have been able to launch a program that offered instruction to 31 students this past fall: in group classes and individual instruction in piano and creative movement. We also showed a 50% gross profit this first time around, which is always positive for any business. As with anything new, it takes time to get the word out and build a customer base. It also takes the ability to effectively market the product—on the web, through social media such as Facebook, and yes, through the U.S. mail. We have a small community here at VBFS, which represents our customer base for FriendsArts. A variety of after-school activities compete for our students’ time—particularly middle and upper school students. Money for many students is certainly a concern these days. While our classes are reasonably priced, it still represents a stretch for some interested families who are already spread thin in this economy. In the short run, my goal is to double the number of students involved in the new array of offerings this winter. I certainly want to attract more students from the outside community and bring them to this campus.
This helps the entire school. I very much want to add production on the theater side of FriendsArts, as well as Master Classes with regional guest artists. In the long run, I’d like to see FriendsArts be able to offer scholarships for interested, committed students, and -audacious goal- see the day when the tuition for classes is completely underwritten.

Any dreams or special wishes for you or for VBFS?

So many of us are excited about our expanding programs, adding new programs, and even the possibility of a new campus. As an outsider with experience in successfully growing an educational program, I know what fresh ideas and new programs can mean to the life cycle of a school. I love being involved here at Friends School as we move to a new level of service. How wonderful this is for our students and for the many students who will flock to our door!

Editor’s note: For her work at SPARC, Jennie was named the YWCA Woman of the Year in the Arts in 2007 and last year received Richmond Magazines coveted Teresa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts in the category of Lifetime Achievement.