PS/IS 87 - The Middle Village School

Jun 23

Written By Ben Houghton

TESTIMONIALS

[Video interviews from program participants post-BMB]

FAST FACTS

School Name: PS/IS 89 - The Middle Village School

Teaching Artists: Tiffany Brown, Ben Houghton

Location: Queens, New York City

Program: after school musical theater club

Participants: 11

Duration: 2hrs/week, Oct - May

FINANCIALS

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IMPACT REFLECTION

In May 2025, Broadway for Arts Education completed its first of three years at PS/IS 87 funded by a grant from the NY City Council’s Cultural After School Adventures (CASA) programs. In our inaugural year, BAE teaching artists worked alongside PS/IS 87 staff to transform the school’s multi-purpose room into a venue for a thriving musical theater program for years to come. Beginning in October, our pilot cohort of eleven 5th graders built skills in music, dance, and acting and finished out the year in May with a 3 performances of devised original musical called Broadway Magic Beans.

In addition to maintaining BAE’s standard of excellence for classroom instruction, project-based learning, and community-driven culminating performances, BAE is also supporting the PS/IS 87 school community with resources and skills to sustain and grow their fledgling musical theater program long after our CASA grant expires.

“As a teacher, my heaven is a room full of excited and engaged students. But it was especially thrilling to have that energy coming from the school’s teachers who were just as excited the 5th graders to learn about musical theater and how support their school community through arts education.” - Ben Houghton, executive director and co-teaching artist @ PS87

PS/IS 87 truly stands out as a partner committed to bringing a robust arts education program to its student body, with a staff of committed educators (arts and non arts alike) who recognize the importance and dance, music, and theater to a school community. They are hungry to build their skills as producer-educators to make sure transformative programs like BAE’s are always available to their students, and we look forward to the next 2 years together!

[insert quote from Tiffany]