Pauline Houston McCall
is a vocalist and songwriter for several Philadelphia-based groups as well as an educator and multi-media artist. She has taught youth music and art appreciation programs from teens to tots and is affiliated with Appel Farm Music & Arts Center and Perkins Center for the Arts.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
2010-present
Community Arts Center, Wallingford PA
Teaching Artist, visual and performing arts
2009-present
Perkins Center for the Arts
Art Instructor/Teaching Artist
2009-present
Appel Farm Music and Art Center
Teaching Artist for Arts In Education
Fantastic Music Theater Class
Artist in Residence Program
2007-2008
Spring School of the Arts
Music/Art Instructor/ Preschool
2003-2007
AKWD Art and Education Preschool
Music Director/Teacher
2004-2005
Vare Beacon Community Program
Art/Instructor/Mural Facilitator
2003-2005
Mural Arts Program
Big Picture Program/Community Mural Program
Art Instructor/Mural Artist
2003-2004
Village of Arts and Humanities
Facilitator of Music and Poetry Workshops
2001-2003
Moonstone Preschool
Director of Music and Arts Afterschool program
1998-2001
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Instructor for Division of Education
Friday Afterschool/Studio Arts
1996-1999
Perkins Center for the Arts
Instructor for:
Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, ages 13-16
Creative Discovery, ages 4-6
Cultural Arts, ages 7-9
1993-1995
Friends Select School
Director of Vacation Care Program
Responsible for hiring a staff
Scheduled field trips
Organized special activities.
1991-1994
Friends Select School
Team Teacher of 4th grade
Afterschool Arts and Craft Teacher
Our Staff
More About Pauline
More About Robb
A lifelong performer of music, from boy’s choir to bassoon in the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia Youth Orchestras, to numerous live bands from Boston and Philadelphia, Robb is a composer and producer of original music.
A multi-instrumentalist trained in music theory and improvisation, Robb teaches guitar, bass, percussion, chorus, songwriting and recording engineering.
Music in Education
-
Produced and arranged CD entitled “Voices of the Village” for the Village of the Arts and Humanities. This CD was based on poems by Langston Hughes as well as original poems and songs composed by the students of North Philadelphia elementary schools.
-
Arranged and produced children’s CD entitled “Kajanga Pamoja,” a tribute to the ancestors, performed by students of The Village of the Arts and Humanities.
-
Taught, arranged and produced a music CD performed by the students of the Community Development Corporation.
Music Therapy
-
Twenty-two week residency at Mater Dei senior citizen center, music and movement program. Produced CD of residents’ performances.
Music Producer for Community Projects
-
Performed, arranged and produced soundtrack for independent film entitled “Unfit,” a film from a social worker’s point of view about mothers deemed unfit by the system who have had their children taken away.
-
Composer and arranger for off-Broadway musical “The Rose,” by Michael Weaver
Robb McCall
is a songwriter, arranger and producer for numerous music projects. A multi-instrumentalist who studied international music at the New England Conservatory, Robb has a vast knowledge of different styles of music which he uses to
engage, educate and entertain audiences of all ages.
My mission is quite simple: to save the world through music.
Most conflicts in the world, whether local or global, come about because of a lack of empathy for one another or a general misunderstanding of each other. We form priorities for ourselves depending on where we are in the world – our geographic location, our social status, or how we perceive ourselves to “fit in” with those around us. We construct barriers in an attempt to define ourselves according to our own inherently limited belief system, without taking into account how other people with very different belief systems might have nearly identical priorities. Regardless of our religious beliefs, our social status or our level of material wealth, everyone in the world wants to be acknowledged for who and what they are; they want their individual talents to be allowed to shine and they want their talents to help the group to which they belong. What is needed, therefore, is a global, universal language that can help us transmit to each other the commonalities that we all share – something that will help us build points of connection.
Music is that universal language. We can create points of connection with everyone on Earth through music composition and performance. We, as a species, can transcend all self-imposed barriers by building connections with each other through music and music education. When we learn about music from other cultures, it helps us to understand more about that culture – their way of life, their priorities. When I introduce young kids to rhythms and chants from Nigeria, for example, someone will always ask, “What does that mean?” And THAT is the first step toward global understanding. Through global understanding, we can achieve global reconciliation and ultimately, world peace.
Once we ask the question, “What does it mean?” with regard to a “foreign” culture, we begin our journey toward empathy. We begin to attempt understanding another culture. We start to be less worried about ourselves and our own entrenched belief system and more concerned with why these other people are doing what they’re doing – why they sing the way they do, the actual words they’re singing and the meaning of those words, why they place such a high value on rhythm and why musicians in many cultures around the world are afforded a place in society well beyond a mere commodity or commercial enterprise. Once these realizations occur we begin to deconstruct the walls of animosity that have been built up over the decades and centuries of misunderstanding and nefarious intent. Our perception of the world around us begins to open up. More importantly, our ABILITY to perceive new and different dimensions of the world around us increases and improves, until we reach a point of understanding that shifts our focus away from a desire to conquer, deceive and destroy, and towards a focus of shared priorities, shared goals, and how we can all help each other attain those priorities and achieve those goals, whatever they might be from person to person, culture to culture.
Teaching children about music, especially music from other cultures, starts them on their way to this ultimate achievement of understanding, empathy and respect. Once we begin to understand how a culture expresses itself through the music it produces, we begin to have empathy for the people of this culture. We can envision ourselves in their place more easily. We can realize that their priorities are more similar to our own than we ever imagined. When we realize that our overall priorities are mutually aligned to a significant extent, we can come to respect that culture and the people – the individuals of that culture. Once we have achieved that, it makes it unbearably difficult, indeed completely unconscionable, to maintain the insistence that we must bomb these people, infiltrate their government and destroy or otherwise subjugate their culture. We now have a vested interest in the success of that culture because now we have learned about them and we have come to respect and appreciate our commonalities instead of learning to amplify and distort our differences.
All of this can be accomplished by teaching children world music, by introducing them to music of other cultures at an early age, before our misconceptions begin to form, before those walls of ignorance and animosity begin to be constructed. This is how we can save the world through music and it is my intent to pursue this course.
Robb's Artist Statement
Pauline Houston McCall is on an energetic journey of making and teaching art in multiple communities throughout the Tri-State area.
Her large paintings, sculptures, installations and intimate drawings have graced many exhibitions in and around the region, with a deep focus in the falling and rising of the human spirit, told through figurative imagery and stories. Massive larger than life drawings, paintings and sculptures become a visual journey of a bold movement through space and time. All the works seem to capture narratives of the past with a deeply spiritual, yet sensual movement towards the future.
Her travels to and through India in 1991 have left her with a deeper appreciation and a clearer imprint of the rising of the human spirit. This experience has connected her directly to the figurative narratives in her work.
“Art is another way of speaking to the world.” – Pauline Houston McCall
“My desire to pull the viewer deep into the conversation of what is going on in the paintings or drawings is my way of passionately speaking to the world. I make art to engage the soul, to reinvigorate a feeling whether mystical or spiritual. My existing body of work entitled “JOURNEY BY FIRE” exists to invite the viewer on the journey in the most profound way. I am amazed by the resilience of the human spirit after devastation. I can see, feel and almost hear the sounds of souls rising out of the water… out of the flames and making a mass exodus across a body of land. I have always listened to the voices of my ancestors. The ancestors truly guide my work and give voice to power and beauty!”
Pauline is the founder and director of the nationally acclaimed women’s artist collective “WOMEN HOLLER,” a collective that unites and invigorates women artists, transcending issues of race and age. The exhibit “Intimate Exposures,” a WOMAN HOLLER premier exhibition at the Painted Bride, was featured on Channel 3’s “EYE ON PHILADELPHIA.”
Pauline’s art as well as her activism has appeared in numerous articles and publications including Working Mother Magazine.
Pauline has recently been a featured artist in the exhibition “Expressions of Humanity” at the African American Museum of Philadelphia.
In addition to her art making and creations, Pauline is an energetic educator that has lead many Community Collaborative projects and Artist Residencies in the Tri-State area for over 15 years. She currently teaches multidisciplinary arts at Perkins Center for the Arts as well as Appel Farms and Community Arts Center in Wallingford and is involved in the creation of both musical performance and visual arts residencies in area schools.
Deeply ensconced in the philosophy of preserving cultural arts and enrichment programs in Philadelphia schools, Houston McCall is leading two Philadelphia schools with a Cultural Arts and Enrichment program that will include music, songwriting and visual arts.
Pauline has designed and painted several murals in Philadelphia and is heavily involved in the beautification of neighborhoods through the arts. She has recently completed a three-year Artist in Residency at Daretown School in New Jersey, an alternative school with participants from several surrounding under served communities.
This particular project was called ‘CREATING SACRED SPACES,” giving students under the artist guidance and the opportunity to recreate their space of learning through the creation of a mosaic mural and poetry.
Pauline Houston McCall is a resident of Philadelphia and grew up playing in the Wissahickon area in the beautiful Fairmount Park with her many brothers and sisters.
She received a BFA in Printmaking from Moore College of Art and Design.
Pauline Houston McCall continues her journey as an artist, arts educator and activist, all of which feeds each other important movement, energy and soul.