Young Inmates Find a Voice Through Short Films

A visionary global movement that transforms the lives of children through music. A new model for social change.

Colombian Dance School Saves Lives

From Palestine:  We must give our children the opportunity to think beyond soldiers and tanks.

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music Youth Orchestra

A wonderful story about a small school in Kabul where street kids, and even girls in a country where education is typically denied them, get a chance to rise above massive obstacles through the study of music.   The school “might just be the happiest place in Kabul.”

The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women

I had the chance to attend Mayor Lee’s recent 2013 Art Award Celebration honoring Rhodessa Jones’ “lifetime of achievement in the arts and public service.”     At the celebration I learned of Rhodessa’s groundbreaking work with incarcerated women through The Medea Project, the kind of intervention that saves lives and helps communities.

A Unique Orchestra risen from a landfill in Cateura, Paraguay

A remarkable testimony to the resiliency of the human spirit in a place of abject poverty.

Houston Opera connects with its Public

Written in 2010 and billed as the first mariachi opera, “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna” tells the story of three generations of a Mexican family in the United States. It’s also just part of a grand mission by the Houston Grand Opera to engage new audiences by telling their stories. Patrick Summers, HGO’s artistic director, says he sees it as a moral responsibility to “broaden the art and take it to as many people as want to seek it.”

Arts & The Mind

From PBS:

Alzheimer’s researchers call it a powerful tool to ward off dementia. At-risk teens use it to find meaning in the world around them—and in themselves. It offers healing to both chronically ill toddlers and veterans battling PTSD. 

What is this magical elixir?  Art. Arts & the Mind explores the vital role the arts play in human development during both youth and older age, and shares stories and cutting edge scientific research on how music, dance, painting, poetry and theater markedly improve well-being at both ends of life.