Students from four Eleuthera schools traded their classrooms for the open shores of Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point and the decks of a Disney Cruise Line ship, recently.
The learning and career day hosted by Disney Cruise Line marked the mid-point of an eight-week program central to Disney Cruise Line’s “Discover Your Destiny” initiative in The Bahamas — a culturally responsive arts integration program in three public schools and one independent campus across Eleuthera.
“What happened at Lookout Cay and at the Cultural Centre is exactly what arts integration is meant to do,” said Sharon Poitier, board member national performing arts education initiative that is developing The Bahamas’ first K–12 performing arts standards in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the University of The Bahamas (UB), and Disney Cruise Line.
“Children stepped into spaces they don’t always have access to — a cruise ship, a professional theater stage, a cultural center with a maypole — and they brought their own stories with them. They saw themselves reflected in the work, and they saw their futures reflected in the people they met. That is the power of culturally responsive performing arts education.”
Sixth-grade students from Samuel Guy Pinder All-Age School, Emma E. Cooper Primary School, and Laura L. Anderson Primary School third-grade students, as well as eighth-grade students from The Island School, came together at Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point for a day of immersion designed to inspire the students to explore careers in the creative arts.
The students boarded the Disney Destiny, where they experienced a performance of live entertainment, toured the ship, and spoke with industry professionals about careers in performance and production.
Laura L. Anderson students toured Disney Lookout Cay and Lighthouse Point and participated in a hands-on Junkanoo craft activity, building custom headpieces with cast members of “RUSH! A Junkanoo Celebration” on the island. The students were invited to join the performers in a show for cruise guests.
After their adventures with Disney Cruise Line, students from the schools traveled to the Eleuthera Arts and Cultural Centre in Tarpum Bay, where community organizer Shaun Ingraham had set the stage — complete with a maypole — for an informal share and show.
With students at the midpoint of their eight-week pilot, the gathering served as a celebration and as a working rehearsal: each school previewed the performance pieces they had been developing, in preparation for the final performances they would present at their home schools. Performances drew on interpretations of the folktales from “An Evening in Guanima: A Treasury of Folktales from The Bahamas” by the late Patricia Glinton-Meicholas that they had studied in class, including short plays, dance, and songs. Students danced to rake-and-scrape music and performed traditional quadrille dance patterns. The younger students sang, and the older students animated the folktales with movement and play.
Disney Cruise Line announced its “Discover Your Destiny” initiative in 2025, to honor the launch of the Disney Destiny cruise ship. The community program is designed to inspire youth and educators through exploration and exposure to creative arts experiences. In collaboration with local organizations, Disney Cruise Line brought the magic of professional entertainment into classrooms in The Bahamas.
The program grew out of ARTS900: Methods of Arts Integration, a UB continuing-education course developed and led by Cristin Carole, Shirley Hall Bass Foundation and Legacy Project founder, president, and executive director. Through ARTS900, classroom teachers across Eleuthera spent a term designing original, culturally responsive lessons based on Junkanoo content provided by practitioners such as Angelique McKay and Arlene Nash Ferguson. Later, as a part of the first-ever pilot program and UB research project, they developed additional lessons and performance pieces drawn from “An Evening in Guanima.” Each participating school then developed its own interpretation of the tales. They were supported by Joey Edwards, the Discover Your Destiny — Bahamas Press Release Spring ARTS900 (Cohort 1) trained teaching artist and Ministry of Education music teacher, alongside Carole, who traveled to each school to observe students and meet weekly with teachers.
Carole provided comprehensive coaching for teachers implementing the national performing arts standards, which build student capacities in communication, culture, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, confidence, commitment, and community-building — the foundational “8 C’s” framework at the heart of the Foundation’s curriculum work.
Alex Umekubo, a theater professional from Chicago and project coordinator, joined classes throughout the pilot to share his career journey in production and stage management. He also led voice projection and confidence-building activities with each class.
“It was really special to see how the students have allowed themselves to be vulnerable and perform with confidence in an art form that many of them didn’t have previous exposure to, and to do so with joy and trust in each other,” said Umekubo.
Students continued rehearsing at their home schools, with formal final performances held at each campus in the seventh week of the pilot. The eighth-week featured focus groups, teacher interviews, and the close of data collection for the Foundation’s mixed-methods research study, conducted under the Institutional Review Board of UB — measuring the impact of integrated performing arts on student engagement, teacher implementation, and social-emotional development.
The Shirley Hall Bass Foundation & Legacy Project is a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to preserving the artistic legacy of pioneering performing artist Shirley Hall Bass and strengthening connections within the African Diaspora through equitable, accessible performing arts education. The Foundation’s National Performing Arts Education Initiative is developing The Bahamas’ first K–12 Performing Arts Standards in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the University of The Bahamas, and Disney Cruise Line.
The learning and career day, hosted by Disney Cruise Line, was held in collaboration with the Shirley Hall Bass Foundation & Legacy Project, the Ministry of Education, and UB. The program was supported by Education Officer Fontella Knowles and Ministry of Education District Superintendent Harcourt McCoy.
