Profile - Dollie McLean of The Artist's Collective, Inc.

Dollie McLean has been an artist, educator, and advocate for underserved and at-risk youth for most of her life.  She was raised in New York City, where she studied dance under Katherine Dunham and Martha Graham.  Dollie has been affiliated with a number of outstanding dance companies, including  The New Dance Group, Haitian Master Jon Leone Destine, and Asadata Defora, the father of African dance in America.  While working in community outreach for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, she organized its first-ever exhibit of West African artifacts, and persuaded the directors to show more works by contemporary African-American artists.

In 1970,she founded The Artist’s Collective with her late husband, legendary alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, as well as bassist Paul Brown, dancer Cheryl Smith, and visual artist Ionis Martin.   It is the only multi-arts and cultural organization of its kind in Connecticut which emphasizes the cultural and artistic contributions of the African Diaspora.

After many years of fundraising, The Artist’s Collective built a $ 6.7 million facility in Hartford’s North End which opened in 1999.  It features 40,000 square feet of classrooms, dance studios, practice rooms, and a theater seating 400.

In May of 2007, Dollie was presented with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by the University of Hartford.  Having served at the Collective’s executive director for many years before Jackie McLean’s death in 2006, she continues in that role to this day.  The Artist’s Collective serves more than 1200 students a year in the Greater Hartford area.