The Arts Are a Powerful Dropout Prevention Strategy

This blog post is drawn from Mark Slavkin’s speech to the National Dropout Prevention Center (http://dropoutprevention.org/) conference in Palm Spring, October 24, 2017. Good morning.  I’m delighted to be here and want to express special […]

Time to Reimagine Arts Education for California’s Schools

Thanks to recent legislation signed by Governor Jerry Brown, it is time to update the Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards for California Schools.  The current standards were approved by the State Board of Education […]

Fostering Friendships and Understanding Through the Arts

On the closing day of our recent week-long musical theater camp with The Miracle Project, we asked participants and volunteers to share brief reflections of their experiences at The Wallis. Here are some of their […]

Advocacy for Arts Education: Building a Bigger Tent

In making the case for arts education, we advocates often point out how the arts can contribute to other key priorities for schools – such as deeper student engagement, collaboration, boosting attendance, and enhancing understanding […]

Beyond the Classroom: Arts Education at The Wallis

Megan McKiernan is a Los Angeles County Arts Commission Intern from Occidental College. She spent her summer internship at GroW – the Education and Community Outreach department at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing […]

The Miracle Project: Giving Voice to The Artist in All of Us

Daniel Sugimoto is an actor, music director and creator of musical theater.     When inside the world of Beverly Hills, one can’t help but feel a sense of movement, inspiration, and artistry.  From clothes, coffee […]

The Wallis at Capitol Records

The past two seasons, GRoW @ The Wallis has offered a course for young musicans – “The Art of the Small Ensemble in Classical Music and Jazz.”  The goal is to bring together classical students […]

Featured Student Blog Post: Kaitlin Zuber

In the Art of the Small Ensemble class offered by GRoW @ The Wallis, we not only learned how to combine two different kinds of music–Classical and Jazz–and learned how to work in a small […]

Collective Impact and Systemic Change for Arts Education

What can cultural citizens do together that they can’t do alone?  I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion on this very topic at The Kennedy Center Arts Summit in Washington, DC on May […]