Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Edwards.
Hi Heather, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
AhHa!Broadway, a women-led non-profit arts education organization, was founded because we saw a need for more arts education programming, more opportunities for underserved communities. We wanted to provide higher standards from an organization who truly cares about the people it is serving. We want to have as much outreach and make the biggest impact possible.
As an NYC teaching artist who’s worked with 15,000+ children, I’ve witnessed arts education programming making lives better, fuller, happier, motivating kids to stretch, believe in themselves, learn skills that make them better people. Seniors and veterans finally take steps to discover hope and confidence, realizing they still have something to contribute, or perhaps simply a sense of equilibrium, now believing they and the world are more than the pandemic.
I wanted to make sure talented teaching artists have work and development opportunities: this means new access to services and opportunities while creating jobs for superb educators who will inspire young and old alike. A City of Dreams requires a way for dreams to come true.
By connecting expertly identified underserved children, seniors, and veterans with access to arts programming and education from high-caliber teaching artists, we are investing in the robust development of more kids where schools can’t serve them, proving to seniors and veterans they can reconnect with and still live out dreams, and showing vets they’re not alone and have ways to express themselves.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We launched in 2020 and immediately, the pandemic affected us as it did everyone. Our fundraising efforts the first year were vastly different from the second year because we gained a lot more attention, support and outreach through social media in 2021-22, but it has still been a challenge as we emerged from the pandemic. As things opened up further, we were able to do more events and programming. We were also eligible for more funding opportunities. But young organizations face more restrictions for city and state funding as well as on other grant opportunities. You definitely have to be creative and resourceful and be willing to stand up to the system and motivate changes that keep opportunities open!
AhHa!Broadway quickly and successfully embraced virtual learning necessitated by the COVID-19 restrictions. Through Zoom and Google Classrooms, we were able to reach students in the NYC area and far beyond. By building a team in which our teaching artists have the related skills, experience and technical competence to adapt to the environment during the quarantine period, all participants are ensured the best possible learning experience. After the pandemic, in-person learning also became possible again and that increased the types of programming that we could provide. Because of this technology, we are even able to have students join us from Los Angeles (among other cities in the US and Canada)!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a performer, a rockstar, or the lead in a movie musical. I was fortunate enough to have parents, both educators, who provided piano lessons which led me to discover my own talent. They weren’t rich but they made sure it happened, and I was lucky to have arts programming in my school. I dedicated my life to my craft and worked in music as early as 15. When I eventually began teaching and seeing how many children don’t have the same opportunity, don’t have access to what I so easily had, my calling changed from being a rockstar to helping others find their own inner “rockstar” – arts education, so kids (and now others) can discover their talents they don’t even know they have, to have a creative outlet, and to collaborate and work as a team, and even to make friends. I’ve so often seen the power of how art heals and inspires. It’s incredible, no matter what age a person is — I’ve seen 85-year-olds discover and find new possibilities with talent they never knew they had. I’m thrilled they found it, but I wish they didn’t have to wait 85 years. New York is an epicenter of art and a melting pot full of possibilities to discover. With this true, I find myself asking – why doesn’t everyone have access to arts education?
I’ve learned about so many things in New York, seen so many wonders, and think: how is it possible that this is my life? It definitely has not been easy, yet it still feels dream-like at times: the people I’ve had opportunities to meet and work with, the beautiful things I’ve experienced. Still, it is a challenge, it can be so scary, but all the tough things have made me stronger. I’ve had to learn that even when I don’t succeed, I know how to do better and prepare for next time. It makes me driven to help people avoid obstacles I’ve learned from. It’s fundamental for me to wish people could always be kind and could all have each other’s backs, and the good guys would win more often. So many things fly at you in the arts: not having any money, hateful people, people don’t want you to succeed because of their egos, prejudice. Then monumental challenges like 9/11, the Recession, and the Pandemic — all these have forced me and other artists to find a way to survive, to keep going, and find other work.
While I’ve always managed to keep driving toward my artistic goals and have been a working musician one way or another, through these “survival” jobs, I’ve focused on gathering skills that made me more well-rounded, enabling a pianist to take on building an organization that uses the sum of all my experiences and capabilities. My friends know I’m always the first person to show up for them and support their dreams and talents. I know how much it has mattered to me when others do that. I wouldn’t be here without the help of others, the generous support and many hours of contribution from people like my husband, friends, believers, and donors. With their help, I get to do something better than being a rockstar. I get to make “ahha” moments possible, the moment when you believe in yourself when you see possibility when you connect your talent with your tomorrow. That is why there is an exclamation point between AhHa and Broadway. Everything I’ve been given, every opportunity, every obstacle I’ve overcome, every NY experience I’ve had, every person I’ve watched be transformed — it’s all captured in that exclamation point.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
The thing I like best about Los Angeles is that it is much like New York City in many ways – the land of dreams and opportunity. There is a rich history for film, television, music, fashion and other performing and visual arts. The warm weather is definitely appealing too!
Dislikes about Los Angeles… traffic, smog, it’s expensive – my guess is that it’s the same answer everyone gives! I also don’t enjoy driving or having to own a car. Getting around easily, less expensively by public transportation is more appealing to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ahhabroadway.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahhabroadway
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahhabroadway
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ahhabroadway
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ahhabroadway
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ahhabroadway.7226
- Other: https://www.linktr.ee.com/ahhabroadway
Image Credits
First photo (kids with girl in red pants foreground) – Emmersen Tormey
