Artist Bio
Dana Pomfret is a singer-songwriter, recording artist and multimedia artist from NYC, now living in CT. She has recorded for Elektra, SBK and Warner Bros., Int'l Records, and has released five albums of original music: Talk, Soul Collage, realtime, Tracks and Float. Soul Collage was released on Warner Bros, International (Tot ou Tard), in Europe, Japan and Australia. Dana’s recordings feature performances by rock legends David Crosby, Graham Nash and Danny Kortchmar, jazz bass phenomenon François Moutin, guitar masters Jeff Pevar, Steve Postell and Jim Chapdelaine, and renowned singer/songwriter Martin Sexton. She has performed her original music throughout the United States and Europe, and is signed to a publishing deal with Jean Davoust, Paris.
Teaching Info and Resume
Education:
Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in English, Charter Oak State College, CT
Programs:
I have extensive experience designing, teaching and participating in multimedia programs which connect diverse populations of students through the multimedia arts. My programs include instruction in songwriting, recording technology (Garage Band, Logic, etc.), Adobe Photoshop, iMovie (and other video editing programs), animation, digital photography, fine art, and creative writing. Traveling with my own laptops, iPads, headphones, digital and video cameras, I set up recording/design studios onsite.
CREATE! CONNECT! COLLABORATE!
The brilliant arts educator, Eric Booth, says, "Engage, then inform!"
My students are fascinated by technology, and use it to create music, video, animation, photo-collage. They collaborate with each other, and (using Skype, iChat, email) with their peers in other cities and countries. Then, they take it to the next level by collaborating with internationally-known musicians/artists, worldwide, and with students in Professor Stefani Langol's Multimedia class at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA.
Student projects culminate in large-scale multimedia installations which incorporate original soundtracks, songs, video, scripts, animation, poetry, art and photo-collage.
Since 2008, students participating in my multimedia programs have used arts-based technology to connect and collaborate. During video conferences with Berklee students and with master musicians, they've performed for, asked questions of, given advice to, and shared much laughter and empathy with each other. The students, and the work they've created, demonstrate the extraordinary power the arts have - not only to improve multiple academic skill sets, (among them critical thinking, literacy, numeracy, collaborative and technical skills, creativity) - but, most importantly, to reach across cultural and social boundaries, to communicate, to inspire and to heal.
2013: The International Youth Arts Collaborative takes off!
Musician and multimedia artist Dana Pomfret and musician and Berklee Professor Stefani Langol take their ongoing collaboration to the next level.
Students from Hartford, CT, NYC, Berklee College of Music, Boston, and Paris, France, collaborate on music, art, video and writing. The final multimedia project will culminate with an installation and performance in one of our target cities.
2009-2011
2010-2011: RJ Kinsella Magnet School of the Performing Arts: Hartford, CT: Multi-media Artist in Residence: Designed and taught multi-media classes in recording, songwriting, iMovie, Adobe Photoshop© and digital photography, with a focus on integrating arts and technology. Students collaborated to create songs, soundtracks, digital photographs, art, video and writing: producing original CDs, DVDs and multi-media art installations in support of their academic curriculum.
Kinsella's multi-media students:
• Created digital art, a photo-collage exhibit and music for the theatrical production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
• Collaborated via Skype with master guitarists Jeff Pevar (Ashland, OR) and Steve Postell (Los Angeles, CA), who then added guitar tracks to original student compositions.
• Created a permanent, onsite multi-media gallery at the top of Kinsella's "grand staircase.”
• Were treated to an multi-instrumental (guitars, banjo, bass, mandolin, ukelele) demonstration by Jeff Pevar, who Skyped with us from his home studio in Oregon. Students were able to ask Jeff questions about everything from his career as an internationally recognized guitarist (the long list of musicians he's worked with includes Ray Charles, James Taylor, Chaka Khan) to his preferred instruments for recording and stage.
• Collaborated with Professor Stefani Langol's multi-media class at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
A step-by-step breakdown of the collaboration with Berklee:
1. Kinsella multi-media students created original music and art using Garage Band recording software and Adobe Photoshop©. 2. Music and art files were emailed to Jordan Maley, with student commentary, at Berklee College of Music, Boston. 3. In his home studio, Jordan improvised and recorded sax/clarinet/flute over the original soundtracks and emailed them back to the students. Jordan also created slideshows, and soundtracks for those slideshows, using photo-collages created by Kinsella multi-media students. 4. On 4/20 Berklee and Kinsella multi-media students, ranging in age from 11-22, met via Skype to ask questions, share their collaborations, and to perform music and poetry for each other.
April 19, 2011: Kinsella Multimedia Showcase: 7-8th grade student exhibit featured original photo-collage prints created using Adobe Photoshop, soundtracks and songs created using Garage Band. Viewers saw the new gallery for the first time, and were invited to participate in the "computer train" - where students presented original work to viewers of the exhibit, and demonstrated their prowess in Adobe Photoshop and Garage Band. In addition, audiences heard recordings of musical collaborations between multi-media students and internationally renowned guitarists, Jeff Pevar and Steve Postell. Berklee student and sax master Jordan Maley recorded on 3 Kinsella soundtracks, which were played at the showcase and at the Skype session with Berklee.
2009-10
Around the World: Multimedia curriculum co-authored by Dana Pomfret and Elise Butson
Our students explored the evolution of technology throughout multiple cultures, from the beginning of recorded time to the present, in a variety of fields, including: the arts (music, visual, literary, dramatic), communication, travel (from the wheel to the Concorde), medicine (leeches to lasers), cooking, language (hieroglyphics to computer code). Students collaborated to research the history of technology in their selected categories. Using digital photography, Adobe Photoshop, Garage Band recording software, iMovie, Final Cut Express, iChat and Powerpoint, they created comprehensive displays highlighting technology’s growth in their subjects, from earliest recorded history to the present. At project’s end, the audience moved through an interactive, multi-media installation comprised of original visual art (e.g., large-scale, photo-collage prints, video projected onto sculptural forms), film, songs/soundtracks, and written/spoken word pieces. Ultimately, the project demonstrated technology's development over time, in a variety of cultures, using that same technology to powerfully connect students of diverse populations: promoting tolerance and empathy through artistic collaboration.
2009-2010: Multi-media students at RJ Kinsella Magnet School for the Performing Arts connected with future multi-media educators at Berklee College of Music, in Boston, via Skype. Students performed for each other, sharing improvisational music, photo-collage, original songs, soundtracks and poetry.
2008-2009
MENC (Music Educators National Conference, now known as NAfME), Providence, RI: March 12, 2009:
Presented, with Stefani Langol (Assistant Professor of Music Education, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA): Composition for All: Technology and Composition in the Middle School.
Presentation focused on work created by students at Lewis Fox middle school in Hartford, CT, which exemplified the multiple ways in which arts/music technology and creative collaboration can serve academic and student needs.
Hartford Stage: “Words Alive in the Middle!” Inter-district Grant connecting Derby, Smith and Hartford Magnet Middle Schools.
Designed and taught a visual arts residency using found objects, handmade papers, digital photography, Adobe Photoshop© to create 3-D art, illustrating the year's theme of “Renaissance”
Culmination performance and exhibit: Hartford Stage, April 27, 2009.
Richard J. Kinsella Magnet School for the Performing Arts: 2009
Designed and taught a curriculum-based songwriting and recording arts residency, using Garage Band software to produce original songs, soundtracks, CDs.
NECAP (New England Consortium of Artist-Educator Professionals) Conference: Rhode Island School of Design: June 19, 2009: Presented at a conference for arts educators and teaching artists, discussing and demonstrating the options and advantages of using music technologies, like Garage Band, in the classroom. The presentation was followed by a Garage Band workshop.
2007-2008
Lewis Fox Middle School, Hartford, CT
I was a Michael Jordan Inspiration Grant recipient, in partnership with Lewis Fox Middle School.
As primary artist-in-residence, I coordinated a unified arts project based on the book We Beat the Street.
Students learned Garage Band/iMovie technology, introductory Adobe Photoshop©/digital photography. They created soundtracks, songs, poetry, prose, film, photos and art, based on the book, producing a CD, a DVD and a multi-media installation at Lewis Fox in May, 2008.
My colleague, Stefani Langol (Associate Professor of Music Technology at Berklee College of Music, Boston), came to Hartford to film the students for inclusion in a documentary which we are filming.
Hartford Stage: “Words Alive in the Middle!”
Created multi-media arts residency based on The Diary of Anne Frank. This interdistrict grant joined Lewis Fox, Derby and Smith Middle Schools. Students created CDs, DVDs and art based on themes derived from study of the Holocaust: struggle, joy, courage, trust, triumph, despair, hope, tolerance, love. They journeyed together to Washington, DC, and performed at the culmination ceremony, which included their own film, photos, artwork, writing and soundtracks, at Hartford Stage, Spring, 2008.
The collage Joy, created in my multi-media class, was exhibited
in Hartford’s contribution to the international “Exhibition Coexistence” project, funded (in Hartford) by The Hartford Financial Services Group.
Ongoing professional development seminars: Hartford Stage educational staff, Lewis Fox, Smith and Derby Middle School educators: The value of using arts-based technology in theater and in the classroom. Instruction in Garage Band, iMovie, Mac OS X operating system.
2004-2008
Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School, Hartford, CT:
Ongoing artist residency: 2004-2008
Specialized Instructor: Explorer and Fast-Track Media: Designed and taught multi-media courses integrating music (songwriting and Garage Band recording technology), visual art (digital photography, Adobe Photoshop©, iMovie) and creative writing. Students created CDs, high-quality photo-collage prints and DVDs.
June 23, 2006: NECAP conference: "Artists and Youth: Working Together to Discover Something New" at Wheelock Family Theater, Wheelock College, Boston. Dana spoke on the panel titled, "Discovering Something New: Artist-educators speak about how their own personal art work has evolved." Discussed the ways in which my students influenced my artistic process, spoke to the advantages of using music technology to engage students who were stressed by multiple factors (poverty, family issues, etc.).
Hartford Stage (2006-2007): “Words Alive in the Middle!” Designed and taught multi-media residency incorporating recording, songwriting, visual art, digital photography, Adobe Photoshop© and creative writing, connecting Lewis Fox and Derby Middle Schools. Theme: “The Evolution of the Word.” Culminating performance: 4/30/07 at Hartford Stage.
Hartford Stage, Lewis Fox Middle School (2006-2007):
Professional development seminars for teachers and teaching artists: multiple presentations on the value of using arts-based technologies to engage students in the classroom, and to support existing academic curricula. Presentations followed by instruction in Garage Band, iMovie HD, iPhoto, iChat, iSight, OS X.
Discovery Museum: Bridgeport, CT (2007): Garage Band workshop for students participating in technology/arts week.
Pomfret Community School (Spring, 2007)
: Multi-media residency: Garage Band, Digital Photography, Adobe Photoshop.
Pomfret Community School (Summer, 2007):
Professional Development for Teachers: Presentation on the value of using arts-based technologies to engage students in the classroom, and to support existing academic curricula. Followed by Garage Band, iMovie workshop.
Farmington Valley Arts Center Summer Program (Summer, 2007):
Garage Band, iMovie, songwriting.
Students created CDs, DVDs.
Greater Hartford Classical Magnet (Spring/Summer 2006): Talent Show Coordinator and Performance Coach: 2006 Classical Magnet Talent Show: Black Box Theatre: Multi-media installation and performance piece featuring original student music, rap, dance/choreography, poetry and large scale photo-collage prints, in Fast-Track Media and Explorer.
Pomfret Community School, Pomfret CT (Spring/Summer 2006): Professional Development seminar for teachers on multiple ways to utilize Garage Band in a classroom setting, its advantages and capabilities.
Recording and songwriting residency for students: Instruction in songwriting, Garage Band software resulting in student-produced CDs.
Farmington Valley Arts Center Summer Program (Summer, 2006): Songwriting/Recording master classes: Instruction in Garage Band software/Songwriting: student-produced CDs.
2001-2003
Connecticut Commission on the Arts: Teaching Artist and Interdistrict Grant Coordinator:
2001-2002
Teaching Artist: Developed and taught a songwriting and creative writing residency for the CT Commission on the Arts HOT Schools program, which connected Hartford Public and Rockville High Schools.
“HOT (Higher Order Thinking) Schools” is a comprehensive educational philosophy/program (learn more at www.cultureandtourism.org). The HOT Schools Interdistrict Grant brings students from urban and rural (or suburban) schools together through music, writing, art, theater, dance. The cultural starting point for the 2001-2002 program was the Harlem Renaissance. Students from the two high schools studied the rich literary, musical and artistic output of that period, then created original work based on themes of personal journey and rebirth.
My Hartford Public and Rockville high school classes co-wrote and recorded two songs, made a CD and created a book of poetry. All were cited for excellence by the state of CT and currently rest at The National Endowment for the Arts. Students performed their songs and poetry, complete with original choreography, at a powerful culmination ceremony at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, CT.
Inter-district Grant Coordinator for the HOT Schools Program
:
Grant Coordinator responsibilities included: finding and securing performance and rehearsal space: coordinating all class schedules between Hartford and Rockville High students, teachers and artists: bringing in guest artists to augment the program: arranging for live recording within the high schools: coordinating rehearsal and performance schedules: managing payment for all artists/teachers.
About The International Youth Arts Collaborative (IYAC): Copyright 2008 Dana Pomfret (New student video, art, music, writing coming soon on the new site!).
The International Youth Arts Collaborative connects youth in urban, suburban, and rural school districts throughout the United States and the world with their peers, with master musicians and artists, and with multimedia technology students at Berklee College of music in Boston (Professor Stefani Langol). Using Macs/iPads, students from different locations, cultures, and backgrounds collaborate to create art, music, video, photography and writing. They share their work/files via social media and video conferencing tools like Skype, iChat, facetime, email, dropbox, the cloud, etc. Collaborating on multimedia arts projects, students and their mentors combine fundamental art forms with technology: songwriting/creative writing, recording, fine art, video/digital photography, Adobe Photoshop, iMovie.
At year’s end, instructors and students from participating cities and towns meet to create a multi-media installation that includes original music, spoken word poetry, large-scale photo-collage prints, video and dance. Those who can't attend in person will participate using a conferencing tool like Skype.
Ongoing collaborations with Professor Stefani Langol (Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA) have been incredibly exciting: palpably demonstrating the power of connecting students and master artists of different ages and backgrounds.
We live in a time when our children often have little regular contact with the necessary wonders of the arts. Though countless studies have proven that students involved in arts programs strengthen their academic, social, and critical skills (among many others), government-funded arts programs have nonetheless been cut, while schools struggle to meet the requirements of the most basic academic curricula. Empowerment has been defined as "a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives." Empowerment is one of the first tools of positive change. Art remains one of the most important avenues through which students can discover and nurture an empowered sense of self.
Ultimately, the goal of IYAC is global: connecting middle, high school, college, graduate students and artists worldwide - using the web as a powerful tool for connection and positive change. Tom Friedman, NY Times columnist and author of "The World is Flat," says: "We have created a global, web-enabled platform for multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work: irrespective of time, distance, geography or even, increasingly, language." Millions of people on our planet, however, are unable to access the internet for a variety of reasons.
This simple fact means a large percentage of the population is not, and will not be, prepared to live a successful life in the 21st century. Many schools, however, do have broadband capability, even if their student populations cannot access it at home. Imagine a site dedicated to connecting students throughout the country, and world, by giving them a virtual platform through which they can collaborate (as opposed to the ubiquitous, and mind-numbing, social-networking model). Imagine putting this platform to work to connect youth all over the world through a potent combination of fundamental art forms and technology: strengthening verbal, written, mathematical, collaborative, social and critical skills while nurturing creativity, imagination, tolerance and respect for diversity.
Student Credits for Music and art:
MUSIC
Classical Magnet School, Hartford, CT
What Do You Do: Tichina Marshall
Truth: Dajavon Davis
Sad Days: Tichina Marshall
Kinsella Magnet School for the Performing Arts:
German Rojas: instrumental collaboration with renowned guitarist, Jeff Pevar
Rafael Melendez: instrumental collaboration with Jeff Pevar and Jordan Maley (Berklee College of Music) Michael Jordan Inspiration Grant: Lewis Fox Middle School, Hartford, CT
We Beat the Street: J. Williams, J. Hankerson, L. Nieves, J. Simpson
Tag: J. Williams, J. Hankerson
Classical Magnet School, Hartford, CT
Can't Sleep at Night: D. Davis
ART: Students from: Classical Magnet School, Hartford, CT, Michael Jordan Inspiration Grant: Lewis Fox Middle School, Hartford, CT, Derby Middle School, Derby, CT, Smith Middle School, Glastonbury, CT
Left Column, top to bottom
Brittany Shumpert, Cameah Wood, Clarisa Gadson, Tichina Marshall, Andrei Dufus and Shirley Jenkins, Elissa Riviere, Jermaine Ellis, Htfd Stage 'Words Alive in the Middle:' Smith, Derby, Fox Middle Schools, 'Words Alive in the Middle' collaboration, Brittany Shumpert, Shirley Jenkins
Right Column, top to bottom
Luis Nieves, Classical Magnet Collaboration, Theresa Mende, Nehemiah Gray, Sabine Riviere, Shirley Jenkins, Shirley Jenkins, Clarisa Gadson, Htfd Stage Words Alive in the Middle, Michael Jordan Inspiration Grant: Lewis Fox Middle School, Janeecia Gore, Jakar Hankerson
Dana is also an artist, specializing in collage and mixed-media pieces. She sells her pieces privately.
Portfolio and references available on request.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
e-mail: dana@danapomfret.com
website: http://www.danapomfret.com * CDs, MP3s, reviews, art gallery, schedule
