Stefania Munzi Watercolor.
The painting, really, is an ode to New Haven history. From a familiar spot on Sherman Parkway, James Hillhouse High School rises from the sidewalk, its curved door frame looking out on the street like a well-worn smile. Inside, classes are underway, from band practice and art classes on the first floor to geometry and calculus upstairs. Outside, New Haven is bursting into bloom: trees reach their lush, verdant branches up to the sky and out towards Goffe and Henry Streets. The sky is a perfect cyan blue, with smudges of pink and navy just at the edges.
The painting, a luminous watercolor from artist and educator Stefania Munzi, is now on sale as part of an arts department fundraiser at the school, designed to raise money for new supplies, set pieces, and costumes before Hillhouse's inaugural arts showcase in early April. In addition to the watercolor prints of Hillhouse, which are on sale for $20, Munzi and students have designed arts-themed laptop stickers for $1.
In those, a cartoon version of the school's mascot, a fierce bulldog, holds a dripping paintbrush in its jaws, where a diploma would otherwise be. Around its pouting face, symbols of the fine and performing arts like ballet slippers, an artist's palette, and dramatic masks à la Commedia dell'arte all float through the air. A too-small beret sits comically on the dog's head, between two curly ears. In addition, Munzi is donating proceeds from her two books, Jojo's Tiny Ear and C'era Una Volta in Wooster Square, to the fundraiser.
Those who wish to contribute can scan the QR code at the bottom of this article or email Munzi at sfmunzi@gmail.com. There is currently no end date specified; the arts showcase takes place April 9 and 10 at the school.
"We are a supply-based kind of class," Munzi said in a phone call last week, adding that she doesn't have a specific goal amount in mind, but hopes at a minimum for students to have enough arts supplies to get through the end of the year. "It’s not like a math class. We need things like paint to do our work. And when the kids have that nice stuff, it makes you feel better. I haven’t run out of supplies, but across the board, I don’t really want to get to that point."
The idea for a fundraiser, she added, came from realizing that across the arts—at Hillhouse, that's visual and graphic art, but also dance, drama, and band—many teachers are working on nonexistent or shoestring budgets, trying to make sure that their students don't have to go without in a district that chronically underfunds arts education.
Under teacher Lilly Echevarría, for instance, the school's drama club is thriving—but it doesn't have an extra $50 or $100 for so much as set pieces or a few yards of fabric for a backdrop. Dancers, who for the past four years have been honing their skills with teacher Millette Núñez, have no money for costumes. Visual arts students haven't run out of supplies yet, but Munzi doesn't want to get to a point where they might.
All of that, of course, feels more urgent as the school prepares for its first arts showcase, in which young actors, vocalists, dancers and visual artists will all be presenting their work over a two-day period. Núñez, a lifelong New Havener who is in her fourth year teaching dance at the school, pointed to the difficulty of knowing that her students are just as talented as those in wealthier school districts, but may have fewer resources to work with simply because of where they go to school.
She's seen that for her whole life: Núñez grew up five minutes away from Hillhouse, and is a proud product of the New Haven Public Schools. She went to Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, at a time when the school was much more interdisciplinary than it is now, and she got to try out different art forms. After college, she taught Spanish at Hillhouse for seven years in the early 2000s. When she returned to teach dance, she asked for mirrors, which allow dancers to check their positioning or have a visual as they move.
It was't an outlandish or extravagant request—studio mirrors usually run a couple hundred dollars a piece—but it took the district three years to fulfill.
"One of the negative things about working in an inner city is that funding is just really scarce," she said. "I know that arts [education] saves lives," but it's hard to quantify. Before the showcase in April, she'd like to have basic costumes for her dancers. She's grateful to Munzi, who has seen the life-saving power of the arts firsthand, for the extra support.
"That’s the power of having funds," Núñez said. "It’s not even asking for glamorous things, just getting things that can allow kids to perform better."
That's not solely the district's fault: in addition to the city budget, the State of Connecticut has not changed its Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula per student foundation amount since 2013. It currently contributes $11,525 per NHPS student—an amount that critics have said could be much higher if whiter, wealthier suburban districts like Greenwich and New Caanan were footing more of the bill.
"We really need it!" Echevarría said of the fundraiser. "We appreciate the support. We have the talent—we have the students who dance, and sing, and perform—but we don’t have the costumes. We don’t have the scenery. We don’t have any budget." A fundraiser, even if it just brings in a couple hundred dollars and creates buzz around the department, makes a significant difference.
Already, Munzi said, people have started to purchase the prints, and make a few voluntary contributions. She was excited when one of them came from Acting New Haven Police Chief David Zannelli, who gave a personal gift of $100. Another came from Libby's owner Marc D'Angelo, who was tickled when Munzi included a portrait of his shop in her book, C'era una Volta in Wooster Square, and was glad to pay it forward.
"I am a graduate of the New Haven school system (Hill Regional Career High School class of '99) and always like to help out schools when I can," D'Angelo said in an email Tuesday. "I also think it’s important to support the arts in school as it’s a positive outlet for students to express themselves."
Reached Tuesday for comment, Zannelli said that he was happy to chip in. Last year, he learned about Munzi's work, and the work of her students at Hillhouse, when he received a public service award from the Greater New Haven Italian-American Heritage Committee. Included with the recognition was a watercolor portrait from Munzi and her students.
"I was just so moved," he said. It wasn't just that he could appreciate how talented students were—he could tell how much they cared about their craft, and how much Munzi did, too.
In addition, he pointed to the arts as one pathway to youth engagement and violence reduction. As a member of the New Haven Police Department, he sees the work that officers do with the Board of Education, through something called the New Haven Police Activity League (PAL). Normally, PAL has focused its partnership largely on sports, as well as homework help. The portrait, and the teacher and students behind it, has made him think more expansively about ways to keep young people engaged.
"This is just another way to touch people's interest," he said.