Tri-State Community School for the Arts

Our Story

    The Tri-State Community School for the Arts branched out of two private music studios- Amy Riffle-Kouyeas and Jody Mosser. When the Cumberland Music Academy closed in the spring of 2009, Amy and Jody joined together to keep their students in a central location in Cumberland. We sublet the IASO Healing Arts Center at 176 N. Centre Street, and offered piano, voice and guitar lessons. Now, a year later, we have added a second guitar teacher, and have grown out of the limited space we have.

    When we started discussions on bringing in new teachers, and finding the space to accommodate more lessons, we also started discussing ways to bring in more students, and came up with the idea of offering scholarships to those students interested in music, but who didn't have the resources to take lessons. As exploration began for making that happen, the Community School model emerged. As many Community Schools offer classes in all artistic mediums, and as Cumberland has such a rich artistic heritage, we began to explore the option of offering classes in all the arts, and Voila!! We have the Tri-State Community School for the Arts.

School Goals and Objectives:  Our primary goal is to encourage participation in the arts for all ages and income levels.

We will use three main objectives to achieve this main goal: providing after-school programming for kids to participate in while parents are still working, building business partnerships to create affordable classes in all areas of the arts, and providing scholarships for students who wish to participate in classes, but who cannot afford them.

Educational Philosophy:  The people involved are of primary importance: the students, who are taking classes and being provided with an enriching, memorable, and quality experience, and the artists, who will be working side-by-side with these students.

We will offer classes in fine arts, movement, music, theater, creative writing, and specially designed classes for home schooled students.