Hartford Performs is founded on the notion that when children are actively and joyfully engaged in their learning, they grasp lessons more personally, more deeply, and more lastingly. During the 2024-25 school year, we provided  600+ arts-based educational programs to 10,000 students for a total of 3,696 hours of joy-filled learning. That's more than 20 hours for every school day!

We bring teaching artists into Hartford Public Schools to teach classroom lessons in creative ways and bring students out to Greater Hartford's outstanding art museums, historic sites and performance venues, where they experience professional music, dance, and theater. We provide Hartford teachers with the tools to integrate creative art techniques into their lessons to keep kids engaged and help them learn and develop. Students in all 31 PreK-Grade 8 public schools in our city benefit from our system each year. And studies show that the arts help children advance academically, socially and emotionally. 

With Hartford Performs, students practice using exponents by creating rap rhythms; learn how molecules and planets move by dancing like them; and come to understand written texts by acting them out, giving them insight into character motivation, consequences, detail and main theme. We've seen students struggling with math suddenly grasp what one-eighth means by coloring in a paper grid; seen multilingual learners proudly show what they've learned by acting out new vocabulary, even if they didn't quite have the words yet; and we've seen shy students gain the confidence to speak in front of their peers.

Meaningful — and joyful — learning experiences like these are what make Hartford Performs' programs so beneficial to, Hartford students.