Narrator: On today's special episode of "State of the Arts," making community through the arts.

In Lambertville, New Jersey, the Birdhouse Center for the Arts brings together people of all ages through music.

Bird: [ Lyrics ] Oh, yes, we lend a helping hand.

[ Talking ] Anybody can sing.

We're all born with a voice and having -- watching people find their voice and then find their confidence, that's the meaning right there.

That's the purpose of why we're here.

Narrator: At the Stockton University Art Gallery, an exhibition of work by Indigenous artists.

They're both reinventing and maintaining their traditions.

Gould Jacinto: We also live one with our art.

Somebody looking at it from the outside, they see as art, we see it as a part of life.

[ Ellis chanting in native language ] Children: [ Lyrics ] I don't need no TV.

I don't need no news.

Narrator: And in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the Institute of Music for Children provides a place to grow and to give back.

Lopes: I am a youth leader and a teacher here at the Institute of Music for Children.

I've been here since I was 6 years old and now I'm 20, so it's been quite a while.

It really builds you as a person.

Narrator: "State of the Arts" going on location with the most creative people in New Jersey.

[ Music plays ] Announcer: The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, encouraging excellence and engagement in the arts since 1966, is proud to co-produce "State of the Arts" with Stockton University.

Additional support is provided by... ...and these friends of "State of the Arts."

[ Music plays ] [ "Do Your Thing" playing ] Children: [ Lyrics ] I don't need no TV.

I don't need no news.

All I need is a bumping beat to bump away my blues.

[ Song continues ] I don't really care what the people say.

I'm gonna do it my way, gonna do it my way.

I'm gonna let it all out, do my thing.

Boom, boom, boom, and a-bang, bang, bang.

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba da.

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba da.

[ Cheers and applause ] Souder: If you ask me, I think the arts is the most important thing that all people should do.

I think that it gives us access to who we are on the inside, for real.

It allows us to commune with ourselves, but then to also be in community with others.

Lopes: I am a youth leader and a teacher here at the Institute of Music for Children.

I've been here since I was 6 years old and now I'm 20, so it's been quite a while.

It really builds you as a person.

There's many art spaces around New Jersey, around America that you can find and learn how to draw or whatever it may be.

But unlike those places, this place is like a home to you.

They really make sure that everybody is accepted and loved from the moment they step into the building.

And I think that's what really makes this place special.

[ Soft music playing ] Souder: The Institute of Music for Children is a community art school, which focuses to provide access to as many children as possible to a wide variety of art forms.

Of course, music is -- was our core art form.

That's where we started.

But since then, we've branched out.

So we do instrumental music -- piano, guitar, violins, drums.

But we also do singing, acting, multiple types of dance, from break dance to ballet to salsa dancing.

They do visual arts.

We have anime and cartooning and 3D and 3D art, as well as podcasting and other media arts as well, DJ.

We even have a culinary arts program.

So there's just a ton of arts for kids to explore and learn and grow through.

[ Rhythmic beating ] Man: Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey.

Hey, Nick.

Nick, you know what to do.

[ Rhythmic beating continues ] Souder: The summer, they spend all morning rotating through different art forms.

They get to choose eight different art forms that they rotate through throughout the summer.

But in the afternoon, we have a group of kids that want to be in the show, and they will pick a major.

So their major art form, which will either be play production, which is the acting portion, musical theater, which is singing, dance, band, set design or music production.

So this year's play is called "She."

It centers around a little girl named Sheema, who is separated from her mom, who's ill, and her father, who's away.

He's in a war.

She begins to go into her imagination.

These toys come to life.

But then kind of the twist is that she really wants to just stay in that world and doesn't want to live in the real world.

So it becomes this sort of battle between living in a fantasy and coming back to her reality.

Girl: [ Lyrics ] As you hear yourself.

You gotta believe in yourself.

Be yourself.

Boy: You know my good friend Al?

Albert Schweitzer?

Boy #2: The one that won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Boy #1: Yep.

That's him.

He's a cool cat.

Anyway, he told me this once.

Eventually, all things fall into place.

But until then, laugh at the confusion.

Live for the moments and remember, everything happens for a reason.

Chorus: [ Lyrics ] Be yourself.

Trust yourself.

Souder: Some of them are artists.

Some are kids that love it to begin with.

Some of them have never done it before.

Some of them come because they need more confidence.

Some come because it's one of the most affordable programs around.

But in the end, what happens is that kids fall in love with being here, with finding their creative sides, with being in a community that supports them and -- and really nurtures them.

And that's why we have so many kids coming from year to year to year, literally growing up here.

Young man: I've been in the institute since 2013.

Boy: I've been going here for, like, 4 or 5 years.

I don't really know.

Young man: This is the first play that I've ever done in my life, and I look forward to doing more.

Girl: I used to have, like, severe stage fright, and now I'm up here talking to everybody.

Mullings: Here at the Institute of Music, I started off as a student just doing piano and drums, and then eventually once I found, like, my calling, I guess, and what I just liked to do, I started doing more, like, music production, sound engineering.

I'm taking a gap year, and then I'm going to transfer to Montclair State.

And my major is, like, recording arts.

Morales: It's a paid job that the Institute offers, which is great, so...

So the kids can graduate and they get their first job already, like, working in the program that they already know.

[ Rhythmic beating ] We don't realize how much it means for children to be able to explore through the arts, to explore themselves.

You know, some of them end up being musicians, but even if they don't go into the arts, you know, just to know themselves and to be able to carry music for their life, for their lifetime or any art form through their lifetime, I think, to me, is invaluable, you know.

It gives a sense of well-being beyond, you know, whatever profession you go into in your lives.

Lopes: My favorite part about working with the students is seeing them grow.

You're ushering them into their, you know, being.

Woman: This is an incredible community that continues to re-create and regenerate the next artists and educators here.

We appreciate you so much.

Good night!

[ Cheers and applause ] Narrator: Art can help a community raise its children, and it can help express the values of a community.

Next, Indigenous artists from South Jersey.

[ Rhythmic beating ] Gould Jacinto: "Separation and starvation are the effects of colonization.

From exploitation, the pendulum swings to conservation.

The balance we find in our Indigenous nation we conquer the effects, the seventh generation."

[ Drum beating, man chanting in native language ] Casey: I came up with "Indigenous Approaches, Sustainable Futures" about three years ago, and I started working with Indigenous artists and how they looked at identity, land and sustainability.

[ Man chanting in native language ] Ellis: It's no secret that we, not just as Indigenous people, but as human beings, have this unexplainable relationship to the land.

Ashton-Dunkley: When Indigenous people are allowed to express themselves with the land and working one with the land, are things that historically my people have done forever.

Gould Jacinto: Living one with nature.

We also live one with our art.

Somebody looking at it from the outside, they see as art.

We see it as a part of life.

"We on the ball now gain a vocation.

The pendulum swings with a slow sensation from exploitation to conservation."

Casey: One of my responsibilities as a curator is to make sure as many experiences and lenses are expressed through exhibitions.

The best thing I can do is sort of get out of the way and just really show voices and experiences not as often heard of.

Ashton-Dunkley: Here at Stockton, I have five pieces called "The Spores of Change."

I have a cross-body bag, a gourd purse.

I have an upcycled jean jacket, a ribbon skirt that's partially upcycled, some upcycled kitted-out Puma sneakers, and I have a reclaimed salvaged sheet metal with Land Back sign.

It's my hope that I've inspired spores of change for the students and everybody who visits here with upcycling and showing that Indigenous modern connection to the Earth.

It's important to reclaim sovereignty over one's land and culture.

But we have to admit that we never gave it up.

[ Ellis chanting in native language ] There was a time between the Trail of Tears and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, where we weren't allowed to practice our culture.

And that's less than 50 years ago.

We were practicing illegally in fear that they'd probably get themselves hurt, killed, imprisoned.

That's still something that we're dealing with today.

[ Drum beating ] [ Chanting in native language ] As a youth group coordinator of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribe, a lot of what we do is to give the youth within our communities kind of a spotlight, as well as some exposure to walking in both worlds.

[ Drumming continues ] Learning these songs, it's very important, not just to me, but to our entire community.

This was how we maintained our language.

[ Men chanting in native language ] [ Chanting continues ] Ellis: We came to Stockton to have a sit-down with some of the executives, directors.

The coordinator, she came to our youth retreat and did a photography workshop with our youth.

One of the benefits of our tribes tribal grounds in New Jersey is that we all know those lands.

My sister-in-law Tyrese Gould Jacinto was able to acquire the Cohanzick Nature Reserve.

It kind of doubled as a reason for our youth to begin to learn those lands.

And that's how we produced most of these photos that we have behind me and my youth got to come and see their art here.

A lot of them are now beginning pursuing their artistic sides more in a serious level.

Gould Jacinto: Knowledge is not meant to be hoarded.

Knowledge is meant to be given to the next generations to make their life better.

So working with the youth group is always a pleasure because the children are like sponges to learn and to be just as I was.

I consider myself a creator, and I like to create from what Mother Nature affords me, such as the gourds.

My pieces in this exhibition are all different.

Every perfect imperfection causes it to have a different line, different shape, and a different outcome.

I plant the seed, grow the gourds, dry them for two years and they become a hardwood, and then figure out what that piece speaks to, what it wants to be.

When I cut them open, I will replant the seeds that I got, and that's what goes into the greenhouse to give me more gourds.

So when you think about it, if a gourd has been cultivated for 10,000 years, and this gourd is the seeds of my ancestors that I'm planting into the garden, it's like a sacred symbiosis of working with the ancestors.

So your sustainability is the fact that it reproduces itself over and over.

And if you cultivate that seed and you take care of that seed, it just continues to grow.

[ Man chanting in native language ] Casey: We often think about Indigenous communities as historic and so many exhibitions sort of focus on that element.

But these are Indigenous voices now, and like the name implies, sustainable futures, these are the voices we're gonna hear in the future as well.

Ellis: We as Indigenous people have to learn how to walk that fine line between reclaiming our culture and living in modern-day society.

Ashton-Dunkley: Art plays a huge role in getting Indigenous voices heard.

It is a way to speak through the attempted silence.

Every catastrophic thing that happened to Indigenous people -- Denial, right?

Removal -- can be turned on its head with art.

Gould Jacinto: All these years, there was not any interest.

Now there's an interest.

Now it's our responsibility.

And then when you're called to the seat at the table, you're prepared.

You have the knowledge.

Now we have to step up to that plate.

Appreciation with a harsh realization.

The answer is not tribalization, but Indigenous nation.

The balance, revelation, creation.

Narrator: Creative communities are healthy communities.

At the Birdhouse Center for the Arts in Lambertville, everyone is welcome.

[ Lively music playing ] Bird: The Birdhouse Center for the Arts is meant to be a hub right in the center of Lambertville, where anybody can come and learn music, learn dance, learn some art form.

You can come in and say, "Hey, I am a yoga teacher, or I'm teaching a sound-healing class.

And can I make something happen here?"

And we try to make it happen.

[ Lyrics ] And we do the best we can.

Oh, yes, we lend a helping hand.

And we do the best that we can.

[ Talking ] One more time.

Many music schools, you learn because you're hoping to go on to Berklee or Juilliard.

And we wanted there to be a place where people could really explore music and explore the arts and learn from each other.

Narrator: Bronwyn and Justin, who met while studying music therapy at the Berklee College of Music, founded the Birdhouse Center for the Arts as a creative hub where people of all ages could come together through music.

Nawn: She introduced me to the Nyckelharpa.

She asked me to go dancing.

[ Lively music playing ] [ Lively music playing ] Narrator: Bronwyn grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with a puppeteer mom who made sure all four of her children learned to play the accordion.

Bronwyn discovered the Nyckelharpa through folk dancing.

[ Lively music playing ] Bird: As a homeschooler, I grew up learning from my siblings, not just from people that were my own age.

And so to me, it's very important to have a place where older folks in the community can come and share their passion and skills with younger folks, and in turn, younger folks can share what they have.

Nawn: People can come here and hear incredible music they might not otherwise hear, or be able to touch or see or play instruments.

Narrator: As a teenager, Bronwyn spent a year in Sweden studying the Nyckelharpa.

She even built her own.

[ Nyckelharpa music playing ] [ Nyckelharpa music playing ] Bird: When you're playing Nyckelharpa, the bowing hand is similar, a little different, but similar to a violin.

So each of these keys is an individual note.

When you push the key lightly, it pushes a tangent into the string just like your finger would on a guitar.

[ Nyckelharpa music playing ] And then you can actually play more than one note at a time.

So you can push two keys in together.

[ Nyckelharpa music playing ] And this key box is essentially the same as the key box on an instrument called the hurdy-gurdy, which it's very related to.

But the hurdy-gurdy has a cover that's actually covering the key so you can't see it.

And then instead of a bow, you're cranking the instrument.

All: [ Lyrics ] For the gospel preacher.

Narrator: Everything Bronwyn and Justin are doing at the Birdhouse Center comes together in their annual community Winter Solstice celebration, held in a local church.

[ Bird singing indistinctly ] Nawn: The winter solstice -- the program was developed as a way to, "A," celebrate that time of year and, "B," just to curate ways that people can do group singing and allow our other programs like our orchestra and our Sing Off Stress group, to have an opportunity to -- to get up and perform in front of people.

Bird: The solstice event really takes traditions from all over the world that celebrate the shortest day of the year.

So the loss of light and then the -- the coming back of light.

Some of it is holiday songs, but a lot of it is just based off of songs that bring you together in this darkest time of year.

So we have everything from a Welsh Mari Lwyd creature that comes through lighting up the room at the start to a crowning of the King of Fools, where we take an audience member that doesn't know, of course, they're gonna picked, and we bring them up on stage and adorn them in these gowns and crowns, and then our orchestra serenades them.

[ Recorder music playing ] We have a woman who plays -- I think it's 5 or 6 harmonicas all at the same time.

Narrator: Their Winter Solstice event is a place where members of the Birdhouse community shine.

Nawn: Bronwyn and I were talking about ways to encourage adults to come into a safe space to sing.

And people have reservations about singing.

People say all the time, you know, "Oh, I only sing if I'm in my car or my shower."

You get some people that say, "Oh, I would never sing in front of someone."

This group is designed -- Sing Off Stress is designed to encourage anyone that wants to come and sing and be a part of a community.

They can do it.

Chorus: [ Lyrics ] And I will not fear.

Bird: I should have said this right up front, but there are no wrong notes, only alternative harmonies.

So please don't be afraid to sing out.

[ Lyrics ] Deep down.

Narrator: The Birdhouse Center for the Arts is a musical family, starting with Bronwyn, Justin, their parents and daughters, and extending into Lambertville and beyond.

Nawn: So building a family amongst musicians started when we got here in 2012.

Bird: My upbringing in Doylestown was not your typical growing-up experience.

I grew up one of four kids and we were all homeschooled.

My parents did puppetry with us and we grew up doing the community theater just down the road, the town and country players.

So my -- my backyard, we would walk to the community theater and that was the equivalent of summer camp.

[ Lyrics ] It would be love.

[ Talking ] The best way to get your child involved in music is to be involved yourself.

The most rewarding part of being here at the Birdhouse is when people come to us and say, "I've always wanted to play music, but I don't -- I don't think I can."

Or maybe they say, "I've played an instrument back in high school, but, of course, like, I-I gave that up and I can't play anymore."

And helping those people pick those instruments back up or try something that they really thought that you had to go to music school, maybe, or study for years to be able to play and helping them realize that music can actually be a part of their life, they just maybe have to redefine how.

Anybody can sing.

We're all born with a voice and having -- watching people find their voice and then find their confidence, and then really seeing how it then becomes a part of their life, that's the purpose of why we're here.

Girl: [ Lyrics ] Like diamonds in the sky.

Narrator: That's it for our special episode on strengthening communities through the arts.

Find out more about the arts in your community by signing up for our newsletter.

Visit StateoftheArtsNJ.com.

Thanks for watching.

[ Music playing ] [ Music playing ] [ Music playing ] [ Music playing ] [ Music playing ] Announcer: The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, encouraging excellence and engagement in the arts since 1966, is proud to co-produce "State of the Arts" with Stockton University.

Additional support is provided by... ...and these friends of "State of the Arts."