Very honored to have my work included in the 2017 "Sign Your Art" project.
Calderone Arts: Blog
TRANSIT ARTS & Jackie Calderone and featured on WOSU's Columbus Neighborhoods series (about 16 minutes in).
By Tim Katz
Tim Katz: Jackie, tell us a little about your personal background, and how it’s relevant to the work you do now.
Jackie Calderone: I come from a very challenging childhood situation. I was the oldest of six kids (ranging from 1-10 years old), and we dealt with major family issues including substance and physical abuse, and barely scraping by financially. I feel the arts literally saved my life. I started dancing as soon as I could walk and amazingly was able to study dance starting at age seven. Home was not safe, school was not safe, but dance was a place where everyone was the same. No one knew who was rich or poor as we all wore the same tights and leotards. I have no clue what I would be doing if not for dance. Dance class was a safe place to feel like you were contributing something!
TK: What led to your work with the TRANSIT ARTS program?
JC: I started my career at the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) in the 1980’s, and while there I had amazing experiences that led to national work in the fields of dance and jazz. I gained such an understanding and knowledge of resources and networking, and I discovered I had a talent for helping artists develop professionally.
I transitioned from the OAC into becoming a performing arts presenter and an agent for national touring artists, but somewhat by accident began offering workshops for central city teens at the same time and soon was spending half my time working with these amazing kids. I guess I found my passion.
....
Fast forward. This week I try something terrifying. It's only three minutes of terrifying [...]

I snapped this photo of lovely Dionne in 2008 when she was performing and teaching with our TRANSIT ARTS program.
http://lifeandwrite.com/
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