JENNY PEEK, Founder
After spending sixteen years working in theater, film and TV in New York City, Jenny Peek moved to Providence, RI to start the organization that became The Manton Avenue Project (a replication of The 52nd Street Project, her favorite NYC volunteer opportunity) in 2004. During her time running MAP, Jenny was given a number of opportunities to speak about children and their inherent artistic abilities, including writing and recording an essay entitled “Creativity” for WRNI’s THIS I BELIEVE RHODE ISLAND (September 2009), participating in the TEDx Moses Brown event “Lives That Speak” (“GANGSTER PIGS, FLYING MONKEYS AND A WHOLE LOTTA DOGS, what teaching playmaking to kids taught me”; April 2012) and serving twice as a panelist at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania (“Art and UrbanTransformation”, Alumni Weekend 2010 and “Children and the Performing Arts: Beyond the Mozart Effect”, Homecoming 2012). She was named one of Providence Monthly Magazine’s “Ten People You Don’t Know Now But Should (And Who May Change the Face of Providence)” in 2007. Jenny has a BA in Physical Anthropology and is currently back in New York City working as a Broadway Company Manager. Serving as the Founding Artistic Director of The Manton Avenue Project is and will always be the best thing she has ever done and she couldn’t be prouder of what it has become.
