Since the age of ten, my musical repertoire has been on public display as a featured solo artist. A piano instructor’s friend heard me at a studio recital and suggested I visit her nursing home to cheer her residents. A younger sister who also studied piano was a favorite duet partner, and after a 45-minute recital for nursing home residents, we were hooked! We visited and entertained at nursing homes across Palm Beach County and also at local cultural arts programs, music association meetings, youth centers and key county board organizations. I received the most gratification and genuine appreciation inside the nursing homes, however.
I later attended Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School, a prestigious high school with a unique magnet program for arts students, in West Palm Beach, Florida. I planned and implemented an organization called ARTS (Artists Reaching out To Seniors/Students) to share dramatic, dance and musical student talent with local residents.
Meeting during the summer on a school break, ARTS provided outreach to twenty nursing homes in Palm Beach County. With the momentum of success, ARTS membership rose sharply and our performances became still richer in talent. We added visual arts and also storytelling and poetry reading to our repertoire. ARTS received charitable donations from nursing homes and created a fund supporting arts education for underprivileged elementary school students.
This development led to successful summer ARTS camps bringing hundreds of elementary school students new art avenues free of charge. Most of these students were both ecstatic about the arts, having come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, and were thrilled to enjoy our five-day, forty-hour weeks away from problems elsewhere.
Our ARTS member student leaders served as mentors and led a rigorous but fun schedule for their young students. One highlight came at each week’s end with ARTS students performing for their parents and showing off their new skills. The shyest children were transformed into enthusiastic artists dancing and singing on stage with assurance! Local leaders were thrilled at our program success, more so because our programs are always offered free of charge to all participants.
As a UF Freshman in 2001, I co-founded an ARTS chapter called ARTES (Artists Radiating Therapeutic Endeavors for Service) with Alison Berrey, Jonathan Kombrinck, and Matthew Willey. (UF student leaders Danny Pang and Steven David Cohen helped us get started.) UF ARTES serves the local community and student benefit programs as well, performing for nursing homes, sharing the arts with underprivileged youth through spring and summer break camps, performing and providing support for UF music therapy research and Gator Nights, and more. ARTES has been extremely successful in attracting members, the membership list having grown to 250 in its first three months of operation!
Our UF ARTES rock band, "Star69," has played on a professional level and won significant recognition (including music awards at the “Battle of the Bands”). UF ARTES has inspired ARTS chapters at schools and universities nationwide, including Harvard, Columbia, and the Middle School of the Arts.
My life experience has indeed been richer since founding UF’s ARTES group. Please plan to join us soon and donate your time and talents to helping your fellow students and society.
Email [email protected] to join!