Artists in Today's World and Momentum

Artists in Today's World
Check out this article forwarded by Derek Sivers of CD Baby. Fabulous piece about independent artists in today's world. Click here to read all about it.

Momentum
On Friday May 11, I spoke on a panel for the arts in Mountain View. The panel was brought together by Leadership Mountain View and moderated by Patricia Cheng, a local pianist. My hat is off to the great artists and arts organizations we have here in Mountain View. Participants on the panel included Scott Whisler, Executive Director of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; Jeffry Walker, Executive Director of the Community School of Music and Arts; Karen Simpson, Executive Director of Peninsula Youth Theatre; Phil Santora, Manager Director for TheatreWorks and Laura Deem, a local visual artist.

I found the discussions and ideas raised from the panel very illuminating. Questions like how are the arts relevant to our community, what would be an ideal future for the arts, and what does it take to create an atmosphere of creativity were raised. We even started a dialogue about the formation of a Mountain View Art Collective. We'll see how that develops.

In addition to the panel in the morning, each Leadership Mountain View (LMV) student chose a local non profit arts organization (either PYT, TheatreWorks, Quadre, or CSMA) to research. In the afternoon, the LMV students went over to Freestyle Academy where they worked with those students to create a public service announcement (PSA) based on the question, "Why is X organization important to Mountain View?".

I got a chance to hear and see the Quadre PSA done by LMV and Freestyle students in the afternoon. (Thanks to Sharlene Gee for getting it.) It went like this: "Caltrain's not the only horn in Mountain View... QUADRE - The Voice of Four Horns." Very clever.

There is an audio clip that goes with the slogan. Be sure to check it out by clicking here.