Culture center closes, another opens
By SWAPNA VENUGOPAL
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: November 29, 2005)


GOLDENS BRIDGE — Although she knew it was just a matter of time before she would have to pile her belongings into boxes and move on, Jennifer Eyges says the reality of the closing of the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts sank in only when movers came to her classroom and began carting out the leased pianos.  "They took it from right under our noses," said Eyges, NWCA's former music director. "And the landlord started putting up signs saying the space was open for leasing."  Shortly before Halloween, the nonprofit center, at 272 Bedford Road in Mount Kisco, closed its doors to patrons after almost 30 years because of financial problems.  A voice teacher and former opera singer, Eyges joined the center in 1996 as the music director.  Then in August of this year, along with several other department heads, she was laid off.  "I was directing a summer camp, and the paychecks had not been regular, but I did not expect this," she said.  A month later, however, she heard back from the center.  "They said, 'Everything is hunky-dory. Get as many registrations as you can because everything is fine,' " she said.  Soon, hundreds of Westchester and Putnam residents registered for classes ranging from singing and dancing to photography and sewing. But less than five weeks later, when the center was unable to match a $200,000 grant, it announced the closing.  On her last day there, Eyges emptied out her desk and started bringing boxes down to her car when she met Patti Hupp.  Hupp had just opened the Children's Center of Goldens Bridge in September and was looking for instructors.  "When one door closes, another one opens up," said Eyges. "Patti gave me her card, but I was so emotional that I couldn't promise her anything."  A few days later, she drove up to Goldens Bridge from her home in Dobbs Ferry. The Children's Center, on the ground floor of an old clapboard brown house, immediately appealed to Eyges.  "It was warm and cozy and very child-conducive," she said. She immediately agreed to direct a performing-arts summer camp there.  Six-year-old Shoshana Chipman of North Salem, a former NWCA student, has already enrolled for the summer camp at the Children's Center.  "The NWCA was very badly administered, but they had very good instructors there," said Jillian Chipman, Shoshana's mother.  Hupp, a former actress who opened the Children's Center with her music producer husband, Kevin, said the center introduces fine art and music to children from infants to 10-year-olds.  "I am offering my space to any of the NWCA instructors who want to finish out their classes through mid-January," said Hupp, a Southeast resident. New students would have to register though the center. One free class is also being offered for former NWCA students.  Anne Marie Galler, a former dance teacher at NWCA, started teaching a beginners class at Goldens Bridge. Her first class was yesterday, and all the girls in pink tutus were new students.  A former Broadway dancer, Galler said that in the days after NWCA closed, all the teachers and students were scrambling for space.  "Patti came through for us homeless teachers," she said.



Arts flourish in this casual environment
BETH BAR
THE PATENT TRADER
(Original publication: November 17, 2005)  

At 3 p.m. Nov. 11, the Children's Center of Goldens Bridge was in full swing. Judy Migdail, a retired art teacher, had just finished teaching the Fine Arts Masters Class for Children. As part of this class, a group of 12 children learned about the artist Kandinsky and then attempted their own reproductions of the master's work. Then it was time for Feeling Groovy, a movement class where center Director Patti Hupp teaches children yoga, rhythm, dance and music. "Let's do a sun salutation," Hupp said as she reached her arms up to the sky. By 3:45 p.m. the kids were ready for a snack break. And by 4 p.m. the afternoon was complete. This is a typical day at the Children's Center of Goldens Bridge. Hupp said she hopes the center, which opened in September, can help fill the void left following the closing of the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts in Mount Kisco. "They got burned," Hupp said of children and parents who were caught offguard by NWCA's closing last month. The Children's Center, which is located in a 1,700-square-foot former beauty plaza near the Goldens Bridge Shopping Plaza off of Route 22, is reaching out to former NWCA instructors and is donating the space for classes that were interrupted after NWCA closed. Former NWCA students can also come for free to classes at the Children's Center. They can take one of the established class for free and if they register for a full session then another free class will be included. Classes are $20 an hour. The two-and-a-half hour program is $45. There is also a $35 registration fee. Mother Colette Rodgers of Purdys had enrolled her children in the past at NWCA. Two of her kids, 6-year-old Emma and 4-year-old Aidan, are now taking classes at the Children's Center. Colette Rodgers said she likes that teachers at the Children's Center take a low-key approach to teaching. "If kids want to take a break, they can," she said as Emma came over to her. "It's very informal. The kids like to be together, have a good time. They learn through play." Emma said she enjoys coming to the center. "I am meeting a lot of nice kids," she said as she took a break in the Mom's Cafe. Colette also likes that the center has a cafe and Internet area for parents. "I can come in and hang out, sit here while they do their thing," she said. "It's a comfortable, cozy place to be with your children." That is just what Hupp, a mother of three and a teacher and actress for the past 15 years, hoped to create when she opened the center. "I wanted it to be a casual, comfortable, informal environment," she said. "I am a parent. I know that is what we need." She said the center also offers before and after-school programs, pre-ballet and BabyTime. "It's so wide open," Hupp said. "If there is a demand and we can find the right infrastructure, we'll make it work."
To learn more The Children's Center of Goldens Bridge is at 5 Anderson Lane. Call 914-232-6813, or visit online at http://www.childrenscenterofgb.com/.



Westchester arts center’s closure opens door for Lewisboro school
Julie Weisberg
Jan. 5, 2006 l l reprinted from page 3A

The Ledger, Lewisboro, N.Y. — When Patti Hupp heard the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts (NWCA) would be closing, she was saddened by the news.  The center, which finally shut its doors late last year, had held a central place within the area’s artistic community for many years and its loss would be a great blow to many residents.  Ms. Hupp – the founder and director of The Children’s Center of Goldens Bridge – quickly realized, however, that she could play an important role in helping reconnect former NWCA teachers with their students.  So the Putnam county resident reached out to the art and music instructors at the now defunct Mt. Kisco center, and offered to donate space within the Anderson Lane building her school in-habits, in an effort to allow some artists to complete their fall classes.  Now, several weeks later, a handful of those instruc-tors have joined The Children’s Center staff, allowing Ms. Hupp to expand its classes and pro-gramming for her winter schedule.  These newest instruc-tors, all of whom formerly taught at (NWCA), include family yoga teacher Franche Carlson, fine arts teacher Cheryl Jelonek, and Jennifer Eyges, the former director of music at NWCA, who will run the Goldens Bridge center’s performing arts camp this summer.  “Well, I know there are so many (NWCA) instructors now that have open schedules and I have open space,” Ms. Hupp told The Ledger during a recent interview in between classes at her Anderson Lane center. “And if we can keep these people connected – the teachers and the students – and just move them to another space, then I am hoping it translates to continued classes here.”  According to Ms. Hupp, the mother of three children, The Children’s Center of Goldens Bridge seeks to introduce young learners “to the world of fine art and classic music of all genres.”  The Center will offer several hour-long classes this winter, including a beginner dance class, a ballet class, an after-school art and dance program, and “Toddler TaTa!,” a class to help young children overcome separation anxiety. In addition, Ms. Hupp will hold a full line of programming Friday evenings and Saturday mornings.  The Children Center also offers a two-hour “Arts & Class” program Monday through Friday, which consists of a Fine Arts Master Class and “Feeling Groovy,” a movement class that incorporates yoga, rhythm, dance, and music – as well as meditation and visualization.  “It’s a very relaxed environment,” she said of the Children’s Center. “And the classes are small, with no more than six students, so everyone can get the attention they need.”  In addition, the facility also features a kitchen area that has been turned into a private café “for the moms,” Ms. Hupp said, with internet access and an area where parents may quietly read and drink a cup of coffee.  “When do you ever get the opportunity to read a magazine when you are mom? Maybe at the doctor’s office or you’re looking at a cover in the supermarket  checkout,” Ms. Hupp said with a smile. “But if you just get to have a cup of coffee and a moment to yourself, I am glad that I have an area to do that.”  Ms. Hupp, who graduated from American Academy of Dramatics Arts in Manhattan, was a working actress for more than 10 years in New York City and Los Angeles. In addition, the Putnam County resident founded her own non-profit theater company in Manhattan before returning to Los Angeles for television and film roles.  “But after 10 years of being in the acting business, I began to gravitate more toward children and music and charity work,” she said. “And for the next 10 years I was in development for a couple of different charities in Manhattan.”  Then, four years ago Ms. Hupp and her husband, Kevin Hupp, an award- winning drummer and producer, moved their family from Manhattan to Putnam County. After adjusting to the change in life style the move from the city brought, Ms. Hupp found herself running the child care facility at an area health club.  But she began to consider opening up a center where she could teach young children art and music.  “And other than the NWCA, I didn’t find anything that was classes for children up to 10 years old,” Ms. Hupp said.   After several months of searching, she finally came upon her current location at the suggestion of one of the members of the health club where she still worked.   “The space is so nice, it could be an art gallery if someone wanted to show their work,” Ms. Hupp said. “Or an area for an adult yoga class. It is a very versatile space.”   The floor above is occupied by Collegiate Horizons, an academic tutoring service, which Ms. Hupp said helps to balance out the center.   “It’s like a full service center,” she said of having the academic tutor upstairs.   Although the addition of the former NWCA instructors has led to an expansion of her center’s programming, Ms. Hupp said she still intends to maintain her focus on her first priority: teaching students.   “My goal and my dream is to have music flowing throughout the building,” she said. “It’s so exciting.”