Leadership Pasadena Debates: Does Arts Matter, Today?

Can art help a child master math or history? Can it promote world peace? These questions and more were discussed in depth with local art education experts and art icons at Leadership Pasadena’s Art session last Saturday at the Pasadena Playhouse and Art Center of Design.

Lead by Tom Coston, LP Alum and President of The Lightbringer Project charity, the class discussed the idea that art is the window to learning about every important educational subject and the special power it has to engage the reluctant student with Cybele Garcia Kohel, Pasadena Arts Commissioner and head of Creative Conversations Consulting and Tiffany Owens, Chair of Pasadena’s Arts and Culture Commission and Visual and Performing Arts Specialist for the South Pasadena Unified School District.

According to Ms. Garcia Kohel, “The importance of Arts to the health of a society cannot be understated. It inspires young minds, forges sacred spaces for communities to share and heal, and fuels the very essence of our American ideals- to dream, to invent, to create. Although not every person who studies the Arts will become an artist, creative approaches to life and all is problems are vital to the continued existence of our culture, our democracy, and indeed to the future of our planet.”

Ms. Owens stated, “Training and practice in the visual and performing arts is indispensable to meaningful, lasting education. Students are significantly better able to function in academic and eventually professional environments when they have experience practicing the critical thinking skills that are taught in the arts. These skills include executive functioning, self-regulation, collaboration, intellectual inquiry, clear communication, innovation, and problem-solving. Simply put, learning through the arts helps students learn how to learn and how to function in an ever-changing world.”

“Whether we are educating school-age children or adults, arts and culture develop critical thinking skills and the invaluable opportunity to create the kind of vibrant community we want to live in,” per Patti Traglio, participant in the class of 2017.

Then Rachael Worby, Founder/Artistic Director/Conductor of MUSE/IQUE astonished the class by stating her passion was not just about music but world peace and explained her philosophy about the transcendent joy of music and its societal value and potential.

Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director Emeritus of the Pasadena Playhouse shared his story and the inspirational people in his life who helped him become the theatrical force he is today and he even joined the class for lunch to continue the conversation.

The afternoon was touring the Art Center of Design, hearing from two fine arts and a product design students and Cecilia Ybarra, the Outreach Program Manager for Public Programs of the rigors of the Art Center curriculum.