"Verbal storytelling gives me the chance to create a world with word images. It transports us to new places and can inspire us to dare great things, even when we're feeling scared. Stories are also powerful lessons, showing us how to solve problems and face overwhelming odds."

"This isn’t a very dramatic story, but I think it’s an important story for students to hear: first, you don’t have to be a certain type of outgoing, energetic person to be a performance artist. Second, a lot of this work is more about relationships than natural talent. Finally, and kind of combining those two impulses, spoken word is very much about building community and telling our stories. There’s power in that, more power than just going up on stage and getting high scores from the judges."

"Arts education is needed in our community to expand children’s worlds. Art gives children a chance to express themselves in new ways that perhaps hadn’t been available to them before. Kids who have trouble sitting still have the opportunity to get up and move. A teacher comes in who says you want to make a funny noise? Yes please! Just do it on cue!"

"Art is the best way to learn about different cultures. By learning about different cultures through art a student thinks and finds their own way to respect and find both similarities and unique qualities of various cultures. With respect they will learn to love every human being and respect their own culture and help to change the world with love."

"I love other art forms, over my life so far I’ve played classical viola and piano, I’ve played fiddle and accordion, I’ve sculpted, painted and made woodcuts and intaglio prints. But writing is the thing I can’t not do."

"Teaching is my heart. Seeing the immediate effect art can have on the students is wonderful. Watching them ask questions, test boundaries, gain confidence, and create works they're proud of is why I teach. It's so neat to take an idea from my head and watch as the students turn it into something real and often even more amazing than I could ever have dreamed."

"I began training in Carnatic music at the age of 6. I have been told by my parents that I would always want to perform, even from the age of 2 or 3, inviting my friends and family to watch my ‘performances.' Some of the greatest influences of my life have been the environment in which I grew up, the South Indian city of Chennai and its cultural background where young children were encouraged to follow their interest in the arts, even from a very young age."

"I see the arts as the center point of academics - all other disciplines can be mediated, experienced, explored, and digested through the arts. I think that arts education has the possibility to open up a space to consider our ecological, social, economical context by working to reveal the complexity of our belief systems and the emotional responses that inform the decisions we choose to make. And for that reason, I believe it is indispensable." 

"Learning about art is learning about yourself, as well as the world. It’s learning about your history as a human on this earth. You learn how (not what) to think, how to study what you feel, how to give voice to what’s important to you."  

"Not every child has family willing to take them to concerts, art galleries, or museums. Within the school setting, with the help of COMPAS artists, children, and adults in Artful Aging, can literally go anywhere."

"The future belongs to the creative and COMPAS fosters that in its artists and the work that it does in the schools and communities."

"As a teaching artist you need to learn how to relate to people of all ages, and all interest levels, from non-existent to totally engaged."

"Since we’re musicians with open ears and a taste for “exotic” sounds, we get exposed to a lot of stuff that the average person may not be aware of.  We feel fortunate, and love to spread that good fortune. And many of these instruments and singing styles have common elements, in the ways they sound, the feelings they evoke, sometimes the way the sounds are produced, and often even the intentions behind them."

Arts education expands minds and gives people a way to see everyday life in new ways. We need this. At work and in our everyday lives, we're bombarded with messages about what we should think, what's wrong with the world, and how we should conform. Arts education reminds us that there is a bigger picture, a more exciting way to be in the world.

It is through the arts that education comes alive. We know the world through our senses and art is something that requires that we use our senses to experience it. I also believe that through our stories, we create both community and understanding. Community, for me, is sharing our experiences, our lives, and the beauty around us.  

As an art educator, parent and professional artist I have watched art education being watered down or lost from many schools and communities. It is a place and way people can connect while having fun learning about themselves and others! Having artistic ways to express yourself is incredibly important for everyone.

Teaching connects me with the joy of making something that expresses who you are – and the joy of seeing the inner worlds of everyone around me.   It is such a fun way to connect with people. 

I got my first guitar at age 11, practiced every day, took lessons for a year and turned professional at age 12.

Arts education is crucial to helping students develop a sense of self and a sensibility to appreciate the world.