Arts on Bryant

Arts on Bryant is an experiment in gift economy, inspired by my parents and Robin Wall Kimmerer's most recent book "The Serviceberry".  The goal is shared experience and community, and your presence is your gift. 

What is a gift economy? Modeling nature itself, gift economies are systems where goods and services circulate through a network of relationships rather than direct transactions. Compensation works differently, too: Gift economies operate on delayed and generalized reciprocity. When you share a resource, you do so with a gift-giving attitude. You don’t expect immediate repayment but trust that your generosity creates a resilient community that will support you when you need it. The “compensation” you receive in a gift economy is your belonging to a web of mutual care rather than a direct return (summary by Elizabeth Whitworth).


Early Music Ensemble Music for Awhile, Boston 2007

Hi, I'm Rebecca, a coloratura soprano trained in Early Music. I adore singing lute songs, zippy Handel arias, dramatic Henry Purcell repertoire, and of course, opera! I’ve spent time performing and teaching, but the seeds of Arts on Bryant were planted much earlier—when I was a kid, growing up in a house that transformed every morning. My parents welcomed other children into our home each day for what would now be called a homeschool co-op or supplemental program for homeschoolers. We’d roll back the rug, push the couches aside, and out came the mats and glockenspiels. That room became a classroom, a dance studio, a stage. 

I learned that a house can be more than just a house—it can become anything.

That spirit has stayed with me. I created Arts on Bryant as a space that’s full of possibility — one that is sure to immerse our children and ourselves in the arts again and again. 

The Kalepaedeia House was founded in 1989 in Newfield, NY by my parents Scott Bayer and Beth Furbush. It ran until my mother's death in 1996.

Performance of Cendrillon at Barnes Hall, Cornell University, 1995

My mother, Beth, 1995

More about Rebecca