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Mission: Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts is committed to the development of Boston's next generation of innovative artists through the celebration and preservation of Black music.

 

Vision: We will provide high-caliber formal music instruction to youth throughout Greater Boston, preparing them for a future in music that challenges inner-city youth to see themselves as positive producers of culture, music, and the arts as a whole, rather than merely consumers of it.

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Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy is named after two prominent members of the Historic Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church and the national music community, Ruth Hamilton and Elta Garrett. Ruth Hamilton was a world-renowned contralto singer who was a proponent of the Negro Spirituals. Ms. Hamilton passed away in 2001 and it was her desire for a community-based youth program to be created to preserve, educate and celebrate Black music and culture. Elta Garrett, a well-known soprano, dedicated more than 50 years of her life as a music teacher in the Boston Public Schools. After retirement, Mrs. Garrett served as the founding director of the Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy. Retiring after serving twelve years as the director of the Arts Academy, Mrs. Garrett still actively supports the Hamilton-Garrett by serving as an active member on the  Board of Directors of the Hamilton-Garrett Center for Performing Arts.

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Hamilton-Garrett Music & Arts is honored to have been affiliated with the Historic Charles Street A.M.E Church for twenty years of service.