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Nonprofit We Are Instrumentl says it has refurbished nearly 600 instruments for Adirondack schools
Summary
Dr. Evan Mack told the board the nonprofit has collected almost 600 instruments since 2020, trains teachers in basic repair, runs a free digital lesson program and received a major grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Dr. Evan Mack, founder and executive director of We Are Instrumentl and a Skidmore College professor, told the board that the nonprofit has collected and refurbished nearly 600 instruments and redistributed them to more than 30 schools in the Adirondack region since 2020. "Since 2020, we've collected almost 600 instruments that have been fully refurbished and donated to over 30 schools, in the Adirondacks free," Mack said.
Mack described a suite of programs: teacher instrument-repair training (he said more than 65 teachers have received continuing-education credit for basic repair), a digital lesson program that connects students to college-level instructors, an upcoming "Harmony Restore" initiative to bring master technicians to schools for hands-on repair training, and a fall music summit that will host visiting professionals and offer continuing-education credit for teachers. He said the organization operates on a roughly $250,000 annual operating budget funded by grants and donations and that a recent New York State Council on the Arts grant was a significant award to support regional operations.
Board members asked about funding, supply shortages and how the program handles large instruments; Mack said larger instruments (bassoon, bass clarinet, tubas) are harder to source and sometimes purchased through targeted fundraising. He urged the board to continue and expand partnerships with the district to provide repair access and programming for students across the region.
