Vision. Mission. Values.
History
A Legacy of Building a Creative Community of Learning and Belonging
In 1996, Rhonda Buckley was directing the Good Shepherd Ministries after-school center for children living in Jubilee Housing’s affordable apartment buildings in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. An accomplished musician, Rhonda began giving her students instrumental music lessons and invited her musician friends to volunteer too. The music program brought the youth and the volunteers great joy, and Rhonda realized that the structure and discipline required for studying music held other transformative benefits. The children’s school attendance and grades were improving, and they were increasingly confident.
Rhonda shared with Patricia Sitar, the co-executive director of Good Shepherd Ministries, that she wanted to build a music center for the youth of their community. Pat was a talented visual artist and a lifelong advocate for children. With deep trust in Rhonda’s ability and belief in the vision, Pat told her to go for it.
The Music Center came to life, and the students soon asked for more: they wanted to learn how to dance, act, paint, and write creatively. Rhonda researched local arts education opportunities for her students, but few existed that were affordable and accessible for families with incomes below the Washington, DC area median income.
A new vision was born. Rhonda imagined a multidisciplinary arts center where all youth in the Adams Morgan community could discover and develop their artistic interests. With her signature determination, she brought the dream to reality. Sitar Arts Center was founded and incorporated in 1998, originally named The Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts in honor of Pat’s inspirational support.
Rhonda knew that her vision for a state-of-the-art facility, designed specifically for arts learning, was grand and that it could not be accomplished alone. She enlisted the help and support of close friends, including social activist Pastor Gordon Cosby and philanthropist Bitsey Folger, and hired Sitar’s first staff member, Maureen Dwyer. Together, they began building a creative community of learning and belonging.
In 2000, Sitar Arts Center officially opened the doors of its incubator space while building Sitar’s artistic home at 1700 Kalorama Road NW. Twenty-five years later, Sitar Arts Center engages students from every Ward in DC. The vision continues to grow.