Sharing a Love of the Arts, Generation After Generation

Love of the arts is a family affair for educator-actress-playwright-director Camille Linen, 57.

Linen's passion for the arts extends to her sister, daughter, granddaughter and husband as well as to classrooms stretching from Rye Town and across the nation to the Congressional Record in Washington, D.C., and all the way back to her ancestral roots in Calabria, Italy, as well as Germany.

"I'm a fanatic when it comes to the arts, fanatic in a good sense, of course," Linen told Rye Patch. "And I want to pass that love of the arts down through the generations so the arts has a prominent place in young lives, in the classroom and out, because the arts are every bit as important as science, math and languages."

She was talking as the matriarch of one of Rye Town's most prominent family's in the arts at the outset of the recent National Arts in the School Day (NASD). Her whole career in teaching has been dedicated to promoting the arts within the entire educational spectrum, from kindergarten to adult literacy to English as a second language.

And while she played it down, Linen, a graduate of Marymount and Iona, has also played a critical role in placing the national spotlight on the role the arts play in a child's education as one of the prime movers behind NASD.

Because of Linen, for example, the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District was the first school system in the nation to participate in the inaugural NASD on April 16, 2008. The event is also celebrated at Blind Brook High School and Rye Country Day School.

To understand her role in making that happen –and lots more—right up to the current time, let us set the stage here with the back story told, appropriately enough, in flashbacks.

And why are the flashbacks so important?  Because "Flashbacks" is the name of the play Linen has written and co-produced with her sister, Donna Cribari, a well-known pianist.

"Flashbacks" tells the history of Rye Town's history against the backdrop of past events taking place in and around the Byram River. The musical will be performed in late May and throughout the summer at Crawford Park and Port Chester as part of Rye's 350th Anniversary, Linen said.

And, for a few minutes, memories flowed like a river, from the Po to the Rhine to the Byram, as Linen recalled the events that shaped her and her sister to the point where they could write musicals like "Flashback."

"We grew up in a home filled with a love for the arts," she said.

Her father, Guido Cribari, was a silver-tongued lawyer. Her mother, Carole Ankerson, was a classical-violinist, with their family roots stretching all the way back to Calabria in Italy as well as to various parts of Germany, the home of her mother's family.

Linen gave that love of the arts to her daughter, Denise Colangelo, also heavily involved in the Rye Town art world, and Denise passed that love on to her daughter, Christine, a music teacher and an award-winning director at Blind Brook High School who was recently nominated for a High School Theater Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director for the school's award-winning production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Linen and her husband, Lou Del Bianco, an actor, singer and storyteller, have watched their familial love for the arts extend to their three daughters, two granddaughters and three grandsons.

They have, in effect, also taken that love of the arts from Rye Town to classrooms across the nation.

In Port Chester, Linen has left her footprint through NASD arts-based programs that take place throughout seven Port Chester schools on that national day. She also founded the Port Chester Council for the Arts (PCCFA) in 1981. The Council recently presented two Arts Advocate awards during an afternoon reception at the Port Chester Senior Center on National Arts in the School Day in April.

Honorees included the Rye Country Day School's headmaster, Scott Nelson, and the educators who created the curriculum for the Literacy Through Arts Program that Linen helped establish, including Jennifer Carriero-Dominguez, Susan Covino, Laurie Glockenberg, Christine Zidik, and the former Port Chester Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Charles Coletti, who greenlighted the program by providing funding for it through the school district.

Linen was thrilled to tell Patch that Congresswoman Nita Lowey had read the following statement into the Congressional Record while paying tribute to the Port Chester-initiated NASD, celebrating classroom teachers who incorporate the arts into their curriculum every day:

"This great program gives young people the opportunity to experience and be exposed to art of all kinds," Rep. Lowey said in her Congressional Record statement. "Last year, six schools in Port Chester, N.Y. opened their doors to 35 guest artists who shared their work with students from kindergarten through 12th grade, and I am pleased that schools will be participating again this year."

"Research has shown that arts education is closely linked to academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. Experiencing art can connect people more deeply to the world around them, encourage students to be open to new perceptions of the world, and create foundations for social bonds and community cohesion," Lowey said, urging teachers in classrooms across the nation to spend more time and effort to bring the arts into the lives of their students.

Lowey's statement was especially meaningful to Linen, who was honored not long ago as one of "20 Women Making History in the Arts" by the Westchester Arts Council. Linen said initiatives like the 12-year-old Literacy Through the Arts Program has helped her encourage young people to embrace the arts.

"This model, innovative program for K-5 students employs 15-20 visual and performing artists yearly in a variety of multi-week residencies which coincide with New York State literacy standards," Linen said. "The program serves all students in the Port Chester elementary schools. It exposes them to the arts from the earliest age, just as I was, to the point that the arts have become a passion that has greatly enhanced my life. I want to share that passion with new generations of youngsters."

Linen said the Port Chester Council for the Arts has created more than two dozen community and school-based arts-in-education programs that continue today.

These programs include the Connections After School Program which has more than 125 Port Chester elementary school children participating. The organization also helped create the KinderArt program that provides kindergarten classes with a district-wide a storyteller and visual artist who coordinate their arts activities with the kindergarten curriculum.

The Council's newest venture, LawnChair Theater, will present a Shakespearean play in the summer at Crawford Park, while "Flashbacks" will have its debut there in late May as part of Rye's 350th Anniversary celebration.

"Art isn't just music and art and theater," Linen said. "It is everything that expresses one's humanity, man's best nature. Even talking and listening are art. I'm a fanatic about it."