Mission: The Chorus of Westerly harnesses the power of music to transform lives and nourish the soul of the community.

Core Commitments of The Chorus of Westerly
As a both a performing arts organization and the owners of a performing arts center (the George Kent Performance Hall), the Chorus of Westerly’s primary reasons for existence are to perform, present, and offer great musical performances and educational programs to the greater Westerly community, Rhode Island, and southeastern Connecticut.

 

We are also charged with preserving, maintaining, protecting, and sharing the historic George Kent Performance Hall. Kent Hall, one of the finest acoustical spaces for choral and orchestral music in New England, is as much the community’s home as it is ours. We are committed to Kent Hall’s use as a cultural center both now and in the future.

Related to our mission and purpose, our current organizational core commitments:

1. To perform and offer to our community, with artistic integrity, both the major classic works of the choral literature and new or lesser-known pieces of merit. 

2. To provide educational opportunities in music to children and adults of diversebackgrounds that are comprehensive, useful, and life changing. 

3. To grow as an important cultural organization of New England, and to serve as aa visible leader in both the Rhode Island and New England cultural communities. 

4. To continue to preserve, maintain, and share with our community the historic George Kent Performance Hall and ensure it remains a treasured, useful, and important cultural home for generations of residents and artists to come. 

5. To be a cultural organization that operates efficiently, honestly, transparently, and proactively. To operate fiscally responsibly and to be governed and directed effectively. To ensure the public’s trust and to operate with the utmost integrity.
 

Our Strategic Ambitions
With our core commitments in mind, and for the Chorus to realize its potential over the next several years, we have created five strategic ambitions that will dictate our organization’s course over the next several seasons. The ambitions fall under the categories of: Artistic Excellence and Recognition, Education, Community, Kent Hall, and Capacity. 

1. Artistic Excellence and Recognition
We strive to achieve a statewide, regional, and national recognition as one of the country’s leading community based choral organizations with a volunteer singing core considered on par with any professional US choral organization. We aim to be celebrated for excellence in seasonal performance, programming, and innovation, and for performance relationships with top-notch music professionals.

2. Education
We will make every effort to expand the existing Chorus education programs so that they serve more residents across southern New England and are recognized for their scope and broad reaching offerings. We will develop one of the finest choral training programs for young singers in New England. We will develop skill building and useful music-training programs for existing singers of all ages, while also developing programs for non-singing members in the community to begin to or further engage them with music and the arts. We will develop programs that residents can participate in without regard to cost or expense. And, finally, we will partner with the local school districts to enhance a region wide arts education curriculum. 

3. Community
We aspire to firmly establish the Chorus as one of New England’s most important cultural organizations with both a membership and patron base that is inclusive, educated and engaged. We will make efforts to be recognized as a leader of the arts and cultural sector in Rhode Island and New England, and to take the lead in helping others within the sector sustain and grow. We will serve as a leader of the cultural sector of Westerly and Stonington, and be at the forefront of major economic growth plans for both communities using cultural activity as an economic stimulator. We aspire to be firmly recognized as one of New England’s cultural treasures. 

4. George Kent Performance Hall
It is our goal to fully develop the George Kent Performance Hall as a major arts venue in the region. We will, as an organiztion, work together with other community partners to promote town-wide artistic growth and community economic development. We will make every effort to bring the facility into the 21st century through major repair, renovation, and proactive expansion work, and work to develop an endowment to support its operating cost for future years. We will explore every way to make Kent Hall an affordable, usable, and available resource for other regional arts organizations with limited resources. 

5. Capacity
We will continue to develop an organizational structure that is a model of best practice in the not-for-profit sector and the performing arts world and have a thoughtful, proactive, flexible and committed leadership and board of directors. We will continue to develop a staffing structure of equally dedicated, passionate, and talented individuals with a size sufficient and capable to allow for program growth and organizational advancement.