PORTSMOUTH - When 9-year-old Elizabeth Rice's piano lessons are over, she immediately wants her fingers to keep dancing across the keys.

"When I'm not playing, I want to play more," Rice said.

Those words are music to the ears of the teachers and director of the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, who held their first Super Happy Fun Day on Saturday, which Rice, other students and future students attended.

The open house-turned-carnival was an opportunity for current students to mingle, and, with music as their backdrop, it was a chance for the center to become a part of the community, according to Russ Grazier, the center's executive director.

"We want to make sure we are accessible to the entire community," Grazier said.

In the first hour of the event, about 40 to 50 people visited the center, which opened in 2002 as an outgrowth of the Portsmouth Cultural Plan, according to Grazier.

The center is a nonprofit community music and arts school. About 350 students attend each week. Grazier said the students range in age and ability, from 2 months old to 75 years old. PMAC offers private instruction in a variety of instruments and voice, ensembles for players of all ability levels, classes for young children, and weekly adult ensembles.

The center, located on Albany Street near Islington Street's Plaza 800, also gives away about $20,000 each year in financial aid to young people so they can continue to invest and grow in their musical career, Grazier said.

On Saturday, children, parents and grandparents wandered around the parking lot of the center, blowing bubbles, dunking teachers in a dunk tank and getting their faces painted.

Mary Ritzo and her two daughters attended the event to learn more about the classes that are offered.

"I think music is an integral part of life," Ritzo said. "All homes should have music in them."

Outside, Anna Nuttall, the center's new visual art instructor who also teaches at Little Harbour School, was painting faces.

Nuttall said she hoped to see even more new faces attend the PMAC and to bring music into their life.

"This is such an artist community, and the center gives kids an appreciation for art," Nuttall said.