Culture is not something we inherit passively. It is something we make together through the ways we learn, create, and connect. Culture in Practice was conceived to help educational and cultural institutions design experiences where the arts become a living practice of inquiry, belonging, and possibility for all.

Grounded in a commitment to educational equity, Culture in Practice works to expand access to high-quality arts experiences for young people and communities that have historically been under-resourced. We believe that the arts are not an enrichment or an add-on, but are essential to developing imagination, critical thinking, empathy, and a vibrant interior life.

Culture in Practice partners with schools, arts organizations, museums, and cultural institutions to design arts-integrated learning experiences that inspire curiosity, creativity, and meaningful engagement. We specialize in culturally-responsive project-based learning, curriculum design and execution, educator professional development, and cross-sector collaborations that connect the arts to communities, enabling them to see themselves as active creators of culture. By bringing together artistic practice, rigorous inquiry, and inclusive design, we help institutions build programs that are intellectually engaging, culturally responsive, and deeply human.

About the founder

Julia Grella O'Connell is an award-winning educator in music and the public humanities. She has taught at Hunter College, The City College of New York, and SUNY Broome, where she created the college’s first class in Black American music history; has served as curriculum consultant to Illinois State University, Utah Valley University, and Cambridge University; and has received grants for her innovative work in arts-integrated project-based learning from the BCC Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Broome County Arts Council. As Director of Education at the Binghamton Philharmonic, she created Family Symphony Sessions, interactive music programs for young children; spearheaded a public lecture series for lifelong learners in Binghamton’s historic homes; designed a unique outreach program connecting developmentally disabled adults to the experience of live orchestral music shared in community; and created and executed school programs reaching thousands of students across Central New York. She has published numerous articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, and her book, Sound, Sin, and Conversion in Victorian England, won the 2019 Diana McVeagh Award for Best Book on British Music. Julia received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2009, and has lived in the Central New York region since 2008.