Peggy Cooper Cafritz, grande dame of the Washington arts and education scene, dies at 70

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just your average DCUM who sends kids to DCPS (and lotteried into east of the park schools), active in the PTA, in not upper NW (not ward 2 or 3), reasonably high SES.

My oldest would actually like ot go to Ellington in another year or two.

ANd I know she was amazing for the arts in DC, and did a lot of good things.

But I can't get over the Ellington renovation and fight to keep it in Georgetown. That taints her legacy, to me.

My opinion about Ellington is 180 degrees opposite yours. I have no idea if my kid will have any interest in attending, but I’m so glad it’s there as an example of the value our culture places on the arts.

And that makes me curious why you believe it taints her legacy.

I don't know enough to have more than uninformed opinions. I think the overrun on expenses at Ellington is unconscionable. Flat out people should be fired for this overrun.

I'm not certain Ellington is as good as it should be for being a flagship arts program. Ellington should be featured all over DC. Tied in with that, I am seriously concerned that academically it's not that good.

I have real problems with the number of kids attending who don't live in DC.

Then, this is where I have an even more uninformed opinion - I feel like keeping it in Georgetown was done for old school appearances - "our DCPS kids are good enough to be in tony, upper crust Georgetown. We belong there as much as anyone else!" and I think that's a fight that's 20 years behind the times. Really exciting, innovative things are happening all over this city, and Ellington could have been a part of a vibrancy that I think it won't have in fusty, old Georgetown.

So bottom line - I completely agree with you that we as a culture should value the arts. I just have this feeling that Ellington isn't the place that's really doing that.

[Anonymous]

^^Yes, you are uninformed and don’t really know anything about Duke Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Trying to understand why a certain type of DCUMer always wants to paint Georgetown as dead and old and not "vibrant." Have you been there in the last, say, 10 years? Expensive as it ever was, yes. But Ligne Roset isn't exactly "fusty." Meanwhile, your darling of-the-moment restaurants are all in neo-ye-olde-town-centre developments that were built in the last 5 years but manage to keep a city address. see, e.g., all of 14th street. Tail up Goat's boring-ass building. "Blagden Alley" as a destination concept. ALL of "NoMa," Monroe "street market", RI avenue's puzzling nonsense. The entire insta-town that surrounds the Nationals and the cheesy "Wharf" for that matter.

Is this where you were thinking Ellington should go? "NoMa" maybe? Perhaps above the exciting Whole Foods in the re-imagined Shaw, where we've removed all the historic community by pricing them out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to understand why a certain type of DCUMer always wants to paint Georgetown as dead and old and not "vibrant." Have you been there in the last, say, 10 years? Expensive as it ever was, yes. But Ligne Roset isn't exactly "fusty." Meanwhile, your darling of-the-moment restaurants are all in neo-ye-olde-town-centre developments that were built in the last 5 years but manage to keep a city address. see, e.g., all of 14th street. Tail up Goat's boring-ass building. "Blagden Alley" as a destination concept. ALL of "NoMa," Monroe "street market", RI avenue's puzzling nonsense. The entire insta-town that surrounds the Nationals and the cheesy "Wharf" for that matter.

Is this where you were thinking Ellington should go? "NoMa" maybe? Perhaps above the exciting Whole Foods in the re-imagined Shaw, where we've removed all the historic community by pricing them out?

All good points.

Folks on here need to remember that Georgetown was a predominantly black neighborhood for many decades, prior to the Kennedys moving here. There’s still a number of Baptist congregations in the neighborhood that have been here for 100+ years. Lots of African-American history is tied in to the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington should be featured all over DC.

This is a great point. I see many promos for Wilson and Deal musicals (which are really impressive!). Five (six) months into the school year - no play? Art show? Fall dance production? Either they have really bad promotion channels are appealing only to their pipeline funders. I live four blocks from the palace, I mean "place." My single encounter with DE students was Halloween when they came my door. Super-nice kids, loved my 9yos costume an in-character acting and won my heart with appreciation for our piano visible from the front door. But where are the performances at EVERY SINGLE public gathering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm just your average DCUM who sends kids to DCPS (and lotteried into east of the park schools), active in the PTA, in not upper NW (not ward 2 or 3), reasonably high SES.

My oldest would actually like ot go to Ellington in another year or two.

ANd I know she was amazing for the arts in DC, and did a lot of good things.

But I can't get over the Ellington renovation and fight to keep it in Georgetown. That taints her legacy, to me.

Peggy actually tried to move Duke Ellington to Southeast. This idea was soundly opposed by the parents of Ellington students, who wanted their children to attend a school in Georgetown.

She was also a highly effective union buster. Most Duke Ellington teachers are NOT DCPS employees, are paid substantially less than DCPS teachers, and are not members of WTU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington should be featured all over DC.

This is a great point. I see many promos for Wilson and Deal musicals (which are really impressive!). Five (six) months into the school year - no play? Art show? Fall dance production? Either they have really bad promotion channels are appealing only to their pipeline funders. I live four blocks from the palace, I mean "place." My single encounter with DE students was Halloween when they came my door. Super-nice kids, loved my 9yos costume an in-character acting and won my heart with appreciation for our piano visible from the front door. But where are the performances at EVERY SINGLE public gathering?

Are you saying Ellington students are supposed to perform at some kind of public gathering? If they're selling out performances within the Ellington community, are they supposed to market for some particular reason? The school has a website with a calendar that lists all performances.

Ellington exists to educate students. It's in demand- my child's program took fewer than 1 in 4 applicants. Many students there come from low-SES homes and really awful feeder schools. Ellington serves them well.

If community members want to take advantage of it as a cultural offering, no one is stopping you, but I'm not seeing why the school has some special obligation to seek you out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington should be featured all over DC.

This is a great point. I see many promos for Wilson and Deal musicals (which are really impressive!). Five (six) months into the school year - no play? Art show? Fall dance production? Either they have really bad promotion channels are appealing only to their pipeline funders. I live four blocks from the palace, I mean "place." My single encounter with DE students was Halloween when they came my door. Super-nice kids, loved my 9yos costume an in-character acting and won my heart with appreciation for our piano visible from the front door. But where are the performances at EVERY SINGLE public gathering?

May sound counter-intuitive, but Ellington is a not a performance-based program. It is for instrumental, but for theater in particular it is a pre-professional training program focused more on the foundation of the craft for performance/directing/playwriting. The freshman year for example is more focused on theater history and learning how to understand character than playing those characters. The students do juried performances in-house to progress, but you should not be thinking of a school of the arts the same way you do your local neighborhood theater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington should be featured all over DC.

This is a great point. I see many promos for Wilson and Deal musicals (which are really impressive!). Five (six) months into the school year - no play? Art show? Fall dance production? Either they have really bad promotion channels are appealing only to their pipeline funders. I live four blocks from the palace, I mean "place." My single encounter with DE students was Halloween when they came my door. Super-nice kids, loved my 9yos costume an in-character acting and won my heart with appreciation for our piano visible from the front door. But where are the performances at EVERY SINGLE public gathering?

May sound counter-intuitive, but Ellington is a not a performance-based program. It is for instrumental, but for theater in particular it is a pre-professional training program focused more on the foundation of the craft for performance/directing/playwriting. The freshman year for example is more focused on theater history and learning how to understand character than playing those characters. The students do juried performances in-house to progress, but you should not be thinking of a school of the arts the same way you do your local neighborhood theater.

Yes, this.

Also please remember- this is a school with about 600 students. The majors include visual arts, museum studies, technical design and production, and literary media and communications in addition to the voice, instrumental, dance, and theater that might be foremost on your mind when you imagine a school of the arts.

My kid is in a classroom full of budding journalists and filmmakers, not like the kids from "Fame" or the Deal / Wilson musicals (which are really impressive, IMO).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just another 1%'er. I could care less.

It's could NOT care less, btw.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/04/27/judge-orders-transfer-of-18-million-of-cafritzs-assets/252f3724-e33a-4e3a-90bc-bf2980653bc2/?utm_term=.7bffd730856d