Americans for the Arts

Thanks to Vans and Americans for the Arts, more than 27,000 sets of eyes will see photographic offerings by students from Belmont High School every week at Trader Joe’s in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. This grant placed updated camera equipment in the hands of inner city teens, who relished the opportunity this semester to hone their skills behind the lens. 95 percent of my students do not own simple point and shoot cameras, which made this gift even more special.

Each week, students embarked on a photographic scavenger hunt as they applied the principles of street photography, capturing life as it unfolded around them.

My own journey in dance has taught me that if you trust in your teachers, your training, your abilities, and your future, everything will come together. Keep the rhythm going!

Everyone can make a difference; together we can make a big difference by pushing to make sure arts programs continue to be funded and offered. By finding new ways to integrate and implement arts programs, we can help kids learn in creative and different manners.

For the past year I have been traveling around the state of Ohio providing arts assessment professional development sessions to arts teachers, as a part of the Ohio Arts Assessment Collaborative. What we have discovered is that teachers, whether in large urban districts or small rural districts, all crave the same thing: They want to learn new skills to take back to their classrooms and to be able to connect with like-minded colleagues. They are typically enthusiastic to have a workshop in their content area with materials that they can apply immediately. They want to soak up as much knowledge as they can.

Art is fluid and very multidimensional, and coming in with very little technical skill I didn’t think that I was a legitimate artist because of my lack. The problem with that is that it was hindering me because I was viewing myself in this negative light. In the same way silence is just as much music as sound is not, being able to make a straight line doesn’t disqualify you as an artist. The important thing is that you remember to make it meaningful and about something you care about. Making a difference is no easy task but doing it alongside other amazing people made work feel like fun.

For those who are on the ground working directly with communities, we know our work simply cannot be done without a number of partners, including donors; local, state, and federal government; other organizational partners; and of course, the children and families themselves. I’d like to shine a light on one of Pablove’s most important constituents—our volunteers—and discuss why they are so instrumental to the work that we do in the healing arts.