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 Frances
Lucerna
Executive Director & Founding Principal
of El Puente Academy for Peace & Justice
Frances Lucerna has been a pioneer of community arts and education for
the past 20 years. Ms. Lucerna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education and Dance from Hunter
College and Masters of Arts, in Education and Supervision, from Bank Street College. She
danced professionally for 13 years and in 1980 returned to her community Williamsburg,
Brooklyn and founded the Williamsburg Arts & Cultural Council for Youth, a community
performing and visual arts program for adolescents. In 1982, Ms. Lucerna became co-founder
of El Puente, a Brooklyn based community/youth development organization nurturing holistic
leadership for peace and social justice.
As Artistic Director of El Puente and with the Williamsburg Arts and Cultural Center as
its cornerstone, Ms. Lucerna has developed Brooklyn’s most comprehensive Latino Arts
and Cultural Center, providing pre and professional training in five arts disciplines. She
has also nurtured three professional performing companies in Dance and Drama comprised of
former El Puente students, and has produced and presented the talent of local as well as
international artist to the community.
As an advocate for the recognition and support of community-based holistic arts services
and institutions, Ms. Lucerna has broken new ground on the frontier of national school
reform as the Founding Principal of El Puente Academy for Peace & Justice, a New
Visions/New York City Board of Education High School. It is one of the only schools in the
country dedicated to Human Rights and a nationally recognized model for "CBO
Schools."
Ms. Lucerna has served as panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, the
Advisory Committee to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the
Community School Task Force for the White House Conference on Character Building for a
Democratic, Civil Society. She was on the Board of 651, An Arts Center, an affiliate of
the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and also served on the Community/Youth Development Guide
Team of the National Network for Youth. Her many awards include "Celebrating Success
from the Children’s Defense Fund, the Brooklyn Council on the Arts Arts Advocate
Award and the 1998 Heinz Award for the Human Condition.
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