Jaclynn Hart

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Age: 31

Title: Programming Director

Company: Hartford Performs

Location: Hartford

Hometown: Hartford

College: Eastern Connecticut State University

Bio

Jaclynn Hart began working with Hartford Performs in 2010 as the organization's first full-time employee. As programming director, she supports the organization's mission to ensure that all students in Hartford Public Schools have equitable access to quality arts education by overseeing student programming and designing and producing trainings around arts educational strategies for both Hartford public school teachers and arts providers. Originally starting with a pilot group of six schools in 2010, Hart has helped rapidly expand Hartford Performs' programming every year and now oversees more than 700 programs annually, which serve approximately 13,000 students in 28 of Hartford's pre-kindergarten through eighth grade public schools.

Prior to joining Hartford Performs, Hart worked for Access Agency, where she supervised youth development programs for children in the Connecticut Department of Children and Families' system of care.

Her love for working with children and advocating for arts education began during her undergrad years at Eastern Connecticut State University where she studied theatre and had her first gig working with children as an assistant director in a production of “Anne of Green Gables” at Hartford Children's Theater. She then went on to teach introduction-to-acting and improvisation classes.

Q&A

If you gave the next commencement speech at your alma mater, what would the message be? Do not plan on using your major in a way you originally intended (if at all) and embrace the unknown!

How will you change the world? I plan to change the world by advocating for the arts to be an integral component of childhood learning. I hope to be a part of the educational movement where the arts are no longer a luxury for some students but become an assumed/prioritized subject in every child's education.

If you could climb Mount Everest, win a Nobel prize, or have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which would you pick and why? My major in college was fine arts with a focus in theatre. I then went on to study acting at Circle in the Square in New York City. I haven't spent much time acting lately so I would have to go with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, mostly to prove I still have some acting chops.