It was the commitment of renowned saxophonist, composer, educator and community activist Jackie McLean and his wife Clarice “Dollie” McLean, who cofounded and nurtured the Artists Collective, Inc. into a celebrated arts institution. Dollie as executive director was invited to the White House in 1996, by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a ceremony that highlighted organizations in President Clinton’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities report, Coming Up Taller: Arts and Humanities for Children and Youth at Risk.
“It wasn’t easy attempting to create an arts program for Black youth in Hartford, Connecticut,” said Dollie. “It took us 14 years to raise the $8 million for the Artists Collective new building at 1200 Albany Avenue. When the city showed us the property it was just a vacant lot, a demolished school building. It took two years just for the Board of Education to sign over the property to the city of Hartford. We were met with a great deal of push back regarding our project but I refused to give up. Once I decide to do something, that’s it. One of the city representatives told me, ‘Dollie, you don’t wear combat boots but you wear those three-inch heels just like combat boots.’”
The McLeans, both native New Yorkers living on the Lower East Side, had no intention of moving anywhere near Hartford, Connecticut. Dollie was enthralled with the theater and dance performances, loved fashion, and attended Textile High School which later became Fashion H.S. (she made her own stylish clothes and later, as a mother, she became her babies’ seamstress). As a young talented dancer, she studied at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and with the New Dance Group. Later while pursuing an acting career, she was accepted into the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company under its co-founders’ actor Robert Hooks and playwright Douglas Turner Ward.
By 1968, Jackie was touring and gigging locally but accepted an offer to teach an African American Music course at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He eventually became the architect of the university’s African American Music Department (now the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz) and its bachelor of music degree in Jazz Studies program. McLean noted in the 1980 documentary “Jackie McLean on Mars,” that “taking that position offered me the opportunity to turn down gigs and not worry about where my next check was coming from to support his family.”
The saxophonist commuted from New York to Hartford but as Dollie noted with a laugh, “one day he came home and said, ‘whoever is moving with me to Hartford should start packing.’” Just that fast Jackie, Dollie, and the kids relocated to Hartford. The new professor observed on his regular walks past Albany Avenue in the hood that drugs had infested yet another Black community as it was done by design throughout the United States. Having successfully overcome his own battle with heroin addiction, he didn’t want to see more young people fight that drug battle.
Jackie’s dedication to young people and the community were seeds for the Artists Collective. He and bassist Paul Brown began enlisting kids right off the street. ‘The Artists Collective started in our living room in 1970,” said Dollie. “We had meetings every Monday for at least one year to get the program off the ground. I coordinated meetings and did all the paperwork. The meetings included our co-founders: Paul Brown, a local Hartford musician, dancer Cheryl Smith (African and tap dancing), and visual artist Ionis Martin. Our mission was to teach young people about their cultural heritage through the arts.” Without a permanent home, workshops were given in various locations such as churches, museums, and the library.
Students participating in the workshops were excited to inform their friends about their new cultural experiences in the arts. As the student population grew, the Artists Collective scurried to and from various locations. In 1975, they found a space but had to vacate after one year. By 1983, they finally found a home that blossomed for ten years at 35 Clarke Street. “We used posters to cover the cracks in the wall and rolled up our sleeves cleaning to make it a very special place,” said Dollie. “Since Jackie was busy at the university, I became synonymous as the leader of the Artists Collective. I was writing proposals and formatting our plans. But I was never really community conscious but I used all my skills from the arts, my dancing, theater and music. With Jackie as co-founder we were able to get grants from the Endowment for the Arts and others. Once I instituted the theater department, Roger Furman (playwright) agreed to come up and teach a weekly class.”
During their stay on Clarke Street, the Artists Collective engaged their students with after school arts programs and a six-week summer program with classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students flocked to their music reeds, piano, theater, dance ballet, African and tap and visual arts classes in the blazing sun even though the building lacked air-conditioning.
In 1984, under McLean’s direction, the Collective began a capital campaign to construct a new 40,000 square foot state-of-the-art cultural center that included practice and dance studios, a theater, large music room, and administrative and faculty offices. McLean successfully raised over $8 million and the cultural center that was designated as the economic development anchor of the revitalization of the Albany Avenue area, opened in 1999. During McLean’s reign it was hailed as the state’s premiere cultural institution, emphasizing the arts and culture of the African diaspora.
The Collective was such an inspiration to children and the community of Hartford that Rep. John Lewis visited on more than one occasion. Once again in 2010, McLean was invited to the White House where first lady Michelle Obama presented her with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. The Obamas’ love for music also prompted them to extend their invitation to the Collective’s Youth Jazz Orchestra (that had to be reduced to a quartet for the trip led by its new leader saxophonist and composer Rene McLean, who accepted the baton from his dad Jackie).
Famous alumni who began their early chapters at the Collective include: actors Eriq La Salle (“Coming to America”), Tony Todd (“Candyman”), and Anika Noni Rose (“Dreamgirls”); drummer Cindy Blackman and tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene.
McLean retired in 2019 and does not have any affiliation with the Collective but noted, “I am happy it’s still there and hope it continues to strive. I received over 50 or 60 awards but it’s more important that what I accomplished continues and the fact that I loved what I was doing and touched so many young lives. Once, as he and I were walking down the street, a car pulled up and the driver ran up to us and said, ‘thank you so much the Collective saved my life!’ That was most important to Jackie. We were trying to save lives and inspire young people. It’s a great feeling to see them now as men and women.”