Have you ever laid your head back ever so gently to rest it on the grass as music from the symphony danced around you just like the ballet dancers in Swan Lake? Have you ever made photos with the clouds while Beethoven whispered in your ear? Have you cautiously peered around the trees wondering when the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park might want some companions?
The sky was cloudy but still blue. It was chilly, but not so cold that you wanted to run inside. It would have been nice to have a cup of hot chocolate instead of water, but you quickly forgot about the chill in the air when the music started to play.
And it was this experience, being outside with thousands of people, some sitting on the grass while some sat on their lawn chairs that gave me hope for our understanding of community. It was this beautiful picture of family and friends sharing space and time, celebrating the amazing talents and gifts that some of us are endowed in music that reinvigorated my passion for the arts.
Drama, music, painting, photography, dance, spoken word and poetry, short story writing and abstract ideas – they are all an opportunity for expression of our humanity, opportunity for us to view afresh the creative flavor of the human spirit, and to celebrate this together.
It was for me another reminder of how I need to advocate for those things in society that grow us and shape us and allow for community to pop up in unexpected places just like a coffee shop were people share their stories through poetry, or in a backyard where someone plays their guitar or on a field where students share their talents with each other as a way to spend a night.
The arts remind me that we each have a story to share, and it allows for those stories to find a voice. They remind me of how small I am, yet how much potential exists for me, for us, for community. They remind me to dream and create and dream again and recreate again.
“To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe (American Painter, 1887-1986)
The sky was cloudy but still blue. It was chilly, but not so cold that you wanted to run inside. It would have been nice to have a cup of hot chocolate instead of water, but you quickly forgot about the chill in the air when the music started to play.
And it was this experience, being outside with thousands of people, some sitting on the grass while some sat on their lawn chairs that gave me hope for our understanding of community. It was this beautiful picture of family and friends sharing space and time, celebrating the amazing talents and gifts that some of us are endowed in music that reinvigorated my passion for the arts.
Drama, music, painting, photography, dance, spoken word and poetry, short story writing and abstract ideas – they are all an opportunity for expression of our humanity, opportunity for us to view afresh the creative flavor of the human spirit, and to celebrate this together.
It was for me another reminder of how I need to advocate for those things in society that grow us and shape us and allow for community to pop up in unexpected places just like a coffee shop were people share their stories through poetry, or in a backyard where someone plays their guitar or on a field where students share their talents with each other as a way to spend a night.
The arts remind me that we each have a story to share, and it allows for those stories to find a voice. They remind me of how small I am, yet how much potential exists for me, for us, for community. They remind me to dream and create and dream again and recreate again.
“To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe (American Painter, 1887-1986)
