Center for Innovation and Community Impact

Summer Encounter campers lined up outside
The Center for Innovation and Community Impact empowers the musical and dance leaders of tomorrow by equipping them with the tools needed to build creative careers that are sustainable and relevant in our rapidly shifting cultural landscape.

The Center serves all units of the institution—the Community School of the Performing Arts, Music Academy, Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, and Conservatory of Music—and promotes creative thinking among musicians and dancers in a supportive environment that embraces the development of new ideas. The Center offers innovative coursework and programming in the areas of entrepreneurship, community engagement, interactive performance, and pedagogy.

The Center embodies Colburn’s commitment to developing young artists with the curiosity and skills to serve their communities while building fulfilling, sustainable careers.
 

Community Impact

Colburn’s community impact initiatives serve both internal and external stakeholders, often simultaneously. Internally, we offer robust learning and performance opportunities for Colburn students in the areas of interactive performance, community engagement, and pedagogy. Externally, we offer a suite of pipeline programs designed to equitably engage students from our local community—through partnerships with Title I schools—in rigorous, fully scholarship-supported musical study beginning in early childhood and extending through high school graduation.

Pipeline of Learning
Teacher Training
Community Partners
Interactive Performance
 

Innovation

The Center provides curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students to cultivate new ideas, projects, and ventures during their time at Colburn. Whether through micro-courses, workshops, or our signature New Venture Competition, students can choose different levels of depth to interact with this type of work in a way that complements their desired careers.

The Center also serves as an innovation lab for the greater performing arts community by driving thought leadership work in the areas of program design, research, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Entrepreneurship
Innovation Lab
Micro-Courses
Career Advising