Written by Henry Lipput -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pugliano is a consultant, business development specialist, trainer, and also a musician. “I’ve played the steel pan -- which is the basis of my organization Barrels To Beethoven -- probably since I was about five,” she said.
Barrels To Beethoven came about after she put together an exhibition about her father who makes steel pans. “In order to do the exhibit, I wanted to make sure I did research, not only of the past of the steel pan but also the future,” she said. “One of the things I realized as I was doing my research is the instrument has gained so much popularity as far as the amount of people who play it, but the makers are decreasing. There have been concerns throughout the Caribbean about passing on the art form.”
She started Barrels to Beethoven as a way to expose the community to the steel pan. She also hoped people would learn how the instrument is made, inspire new makers, inspire new players and, hopefully, sustain and develop the instrument over time.
When Pugliano discovered that New Sun Rising was helping people make an impact in their community, she got in touch with the organization and applied to be part of the Arts Mode project. “With their help, I’ve been able to build an organizational structure. So thinking about things like a budget -- which I had but not on a larger scale -- so I now have a two-, three-year budget that I’m using when I’m doing grant writing. We talk a lot about grant writing and funding. We’ve learned a lot about building a board -- I hadn’t even thought about building a board and now I’m interviewing and asking people to be on an advisory board -- which is something I wouldn’t even have thought that my organization was ready for.”
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