Olympic Peninsula Teaching Artists Invited to Apply for Peninsula Performs! Arts Education Program at Field Hall > Click Here
This blog has been written by Jessie Young, Director of Education & Artistic Engagement at Field Hall. A 2003 graduate of Port Angeles High School, Jessie is returning to her hometown after living and working in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, and New York City. She brings with her a rich background as a dancer, performer, choreographer, educator, and leader, and we’re thrilled to have her on board. We are thrilled to welcome her to our team and work with her to continue to grow Peninsula Performs! arts education in Clallam County.
ABOUT PENINSULA PERFORMS! ARTS EDUCATION
Peninsula Performs! is a growing arts education program that connects professional artists with students and educators in the Port Angeles and Sequim School Districts, bringing music, dance, theater, and visual arts directly into classrooms through a curriculum-integrated model that aligns with both Common Core State Standards and National Core Arts Standards.
Rooted in the belief that every student deserves meaningful access to the arts, the program strengthens academic learning, supports local artists, and builds lasting connections between schools and the rich creative community of the Olympic Peninsula.
Offered at no cost to schools or students, the program also supports the local arts ecosystem by employing Olympic Peninsula-based artists who bring care, rigor, and real-world practice into the classroom.
MEET JESSIE YOUNG: FIELD HALL'S DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & ARTISTIC ENGAGEMENT
Peninsula Performs! is heading into its fourth year, and I want to take a moment to reflect on what makes this program feel so deeply alive. It’s not only about the number of schools we’ve reached or the quality of teaching that’s happened—though both are true—it’s about how this work lives within a much larger framework: the arts ecology of the Olympic Peninsula, where artists, educators, and communities continue to show up for each other in ways that are generous, creative, and sustaining.
Since the beginning, this program has been built through care and commitment—shaped by the leadership of Kayla Oakes, whose thoughtful, long-term investment laid the foundation for what this program has become, and carried forward by the artists who continue to bring not only their craft but their full selves into school classrooms. I feel grateful to be stepping into this work with so much already in place, and with a real sense of possibility for how it can keep growing.
One of the things that excites me most about Peninsula Performs! is the way it reflects how art actually lives in the world—not separated into categories or isolated disciplines, but connected and alive through relationship. Music, visual art, dance, theater, storytelling—these forms are not in competition or in isolation, but in conversation.
With this program, students get the chance to experience the ecosystem of the arts in a way that honors how interconnected creative work really is, and how much can happen when those threads are allowed to weave together.
This kind of integrated, interdisciplinary work feels especially right here, in a place with such a strong legacy of artist-led, community-rooted engagement.
The Olympic Peninsula already holds so much creative richness, and the artists and organizations working across Port Angeles, Sequim, and beyond continue to nourish and strengthen one another. I see Field Hall as one part of this larger creative web—a space that’s committed to holding and supporting what exists while helping create new connections, opportunities, and shared growth.
I come to this work standing on the shoulders of artists and teachers who shaped me—and continue to impact my life. Growing up in Port Angeles, I had access to the arts because people in this community made it possible.
Kate McDermott, piano
Jim Stapleton, Diana Bigelow, Dennis Duncan, children’s theater
Jim Guthrie, community theater
Mary Marcial and Sylvia Wanner, dance
Jolene Dalton Gailey, dance team
Jenny Steelquist, visual art
Kathy Balducci, choreography, PAOLOA
These teachers didn’t just teach—they gave. They built a culture where the arts were part of everyday life, where young people could try, practice, and belong. That history is alive in me, and I carry it into every space I work in.
It matters that Field Hall exists within this history—not above it, but rooted in it. The presence of a place like Field Hall only has meaning if it is in relationship with the people and places that have sustained the arts here all along. Its strength comes from being part of that web—from honoring the artists and educators who’ve made this region vibrant, and from creating new opportunities that grow out of that care.
This isn’t about programming from a distance. It’s about showing up, listening, and working together across generations and disciplines. That’s the work I believe in. That’s the kind of Field Hall I’m here for.
As we expand into Sequim this year, I’m carrying all of that with me—the relationships, the history, the belief in what’s possible when we work together across disciplines, across institutions, and with a shared purpose to make the arts present and meaningful in the lives of young people across the peninsula.
