Photo Gallery
Rhonda Buckley
Executive Director
Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Performing Arts
When Rhonda Buckley was a child, she lit up like a Christmas tree at the sound of her Aunt Mary Jo playing piano. "She played a Chopin Polonaise," Buckley remembers, "I fell in love with her playing and with music." She found her own personal passion in the saxophone, an instrument that changed her life and directed her future. "I can't imagine my life without music, she says. I feel passionately that every young person should have the opportunity to discover his or her gifts in music and the arts, just as I had the chance."
After a stint as a woodwind specialist for Walt Disney World, she came to DC in 1992 and met Patricia Sitar, an artist herself who became a role model for Buckley. "Pat had a talent for allowing those around her to identify their gifts and use them," she says. While working in Adams Morgan, Buckley realized that there was a deep need for children in the neighborhood, especially those from low income homes, to gain greater exposure to music and the arts. In 1998, she began giving children music lessons and soon had enlisted other friends to assist her.
The program continued to grow and Buckley decided to officially name it after her mentor. In a remarkably short period of time, the Sitar Center grew from a small program serving 50 children in the basement of an apartment building to a community institution offering dozens of diverse classes for more than 400 students. After a successful capital campaign, Rhonda purchased a new 10,700-square foot facility that it had been renting in Adams Morgan in order to serve hundreds of children, many of whom had been on the waiting list. Volunteer teachers from leading arts organizations, including the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington Ballet, provide affordable, high quality arts education classes.
The growth of the Sitar Center has added many new possibilities but also new challenges for Rhonda: managing a staff that had expanded from three to nine; a volunteer faculty that had grown from 30 to 100; and an operating budget that had quadrupled. Yet she never fails to walk the halls, stopping in classes, and talking to parents, in order to keep the Sitar Center a warm, friendly place for families.
Under Rhonda's leadership, the Sitar Center has developed a diverse funding base, a strong and active board, committed donors and volunteers, a healthy financial picture, and a wonderful new home. But most importantly, it has become a vibrant place for children to expand their creative boundaries. "I love the idea of creating a structure that will outlive all of us, that will provide a place for kids to be and a stable environment where the arts can continue to thrive," Buckley says.