Academy Prep is a small private school on a tight budget. A downtown congregation opens its doors to put students in touch with the arts.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 7, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The hallowed space of St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral was to welcome jugglers, tumblers and a bit of unicycling Friday evening.
Add to that a troupe of dancers, some drama and the sounds of Christmas.
It would all be in good taste, promised those who organized the event, and most important, it would demonstrate the good that can be done when a congregation reaches beyond its inner sanctum.
For several months, St. Peter's has made its facilities, staff and volunteers from its congregation available to Academy Prep, a small private school that offers a focused academic program and disciplined environment for disadvantaged students. The purpose of the effort, which began in the spring, is to expose the entire student body to the arts.
Friday evening's Holiday Fiesta, which included performances with recorders, chimes and drums, and a specially written play, was a chance for the students to show the community what they had learned.
The collaboration between St. Peter's and the school has added an important dimension to Academy Prep, said head of school Brenda Thompson, who has a doctorate in education.
"It really has helped to round out our curriculum by providing our students with exposure to the arts. We focus on the academics as well as social growth and development, as well as moral growth, but when it comes to music, art, drama or even dance, we just don't have the resources, the personnel or the space," she said.
"It has just been a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for individuals in the community to share their knowledge and expertise with our students. It has been a real commitment to bringing the finer side of life into their lives."
The idea to offer the expertise of St. Peter's staff and congregation, its equipment and facilities to the middle school, founded seven years ago in the heart of one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, originated with the cathedral's organist and choirmaster Philip D. Johnson.
In the fall of 2002, said Marsha Wegner, who teaches English at Academy Prep and also is a member of St. Peter's, Johnson approached her about sharing the cathedral's resources with the school. The effort now includes others in St. Petersburg's arts community, such as Sister Elaine Taylor of St. Petersburg Petite Little Theater and actor, director and playwright Bob Devin Jones. Additionally, longtime Academy Prep volunteer Ernest Furblur continues to teach acrobatics and two students from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, April Johnson and Tynell Cromartie, have been teaching modern dance.
Several students have shown talent in certain areas, Ms. Wegner said.
"What we are trying to figure out is how we're going to foster that," she said.
Two days before Friday's performance, the Gothic revival cathedral echoed with the excited murmur of nearly 100 youngsters who had traveled there by bus from their campus at 2301 22nd Ave. S. They had practiced in other areas of St. Peter's property, but this was the first time they would run through the program together in the small cathedral at 140 Fourth St. N.
Mindful of the sensibilities of the congregation, a temporary screen had been set up to separate the main altar from the activity. The font also had been moved aside. Friday's event, said Johnson, the church's organist and choirmaster, would put St. Peter's in good company, allowing it to function in the tradition of European cathedrals during medieval times, when the edifices served as both secular and sacred spaces.
In true tradition, the rehearsal had its rough spots.
"Tomorrow it should be a little more polished," Mrs. Wegner said Thursday afternoon as she discussed the next day's program.
"These are not kids who have been having music lessons since they were four," she said.
"For many of them, this is the first time playing a musical instrument, or even taking dance instruction."
The relationship the school has with St. Peter's complements one established earlier with the Arts Center. The center, at 719 Central Ave., has been giving Academy Prep students art classes since 1998, executive director Eveyln Craft said.
"It's a real positive impact. It certainly fits with our mission, which is community education and making art and art classes accessible to all. ... They had asked that we teach four days a week, but we didn't have the funding at this point in time," she said.
As part of the Holiday Fiesta, the students' artwork was to be on display in St. Peter's parish hall after the performance.
Organizers view Friday's program as a milestone rather than a culmination for the school's 97 students.
"The goal, as in just everything we do, is to expose them to the arts, but to actually have them participate in a way that would be meaningful to them and to inspire them. As educators, our goal is to develop the total student," said Gillian Barnes, the school's volunteer and activities coordinator.
"What we'd like to do next semester," said Ms. Thompson, head of school, "is to allow the students to have a chance to focus on specific areas such as art or dance or drama or music."
