This month, Jean McClelland, a faculty member at the Columbia University School of the Arts, will start her 34th year teaching Awakening Your True Voice at the New York Open Center. That’s a long tenure by any standard, so we asked McClelland to tell us about the Open Center and how she found herself teaching there.

“Quite unexpectedly, I came upon an Open Center catalog in a bookstore. As I read through it I was instantly inspired, and I knew I had to be part of this vital place,” she says. “That was reinforced when I met Ralph White, the director of programming and one of the founders of the Open Center. I had never met anyone so knowledgeable and visionary. It has been Ralph’s strong sense of holistic mission that has helped the Open Center thrive and made it such a remarkable environment for exploration. I leave every class I teach totally invigorated.”

White notes that McClelland’s students at the Open Center tend to share her enthusiasm.

“Jean is one of the most effective and gifted teachers of the arts at the New York Open Center,” he says. “Her classes have consistently received outstanding feedback, and her work is widely admired for its ability to empower. She is possessed of a remarkable ability to create a warm and caring atmosphere in which students feel free to explore new dimensions of the voice.”

The next course of Awakening Your True Voice begins March 23, with a free

introductory session March 16.

Location: 22 E. 30th St. For more information, visit JeanMcClellandVoice.com or OpenCenter.org.