April 16, 2004

Arts Mentors Make the Difference in Young Lives

Filed under: Art and About Kids — admin @ 2:00 pm

I ran into a friend, Jean Vosti, at the hair salon and she was all aglow. She had just spent the morning holding her granddaughter while her daughter-in-law had a doctor’s appointment. Hannah Grace is Jean’s first grandchild, and Jean was euphoric about how here daughter-in-law was inviting her to be an active participant in Hannah’s life. Jean was honored to have been included in the delivery room for the birth, along with her daughter-in-law’s own mom and step-mom.

Jean told me all this with a dreamy grin and starry eyes and then paused. Suddenly, she sat up tall, her eyes turned resolute and her jaw became determined. “I’m going to be the Arts Grandma,” she declared.

Gazing forward as if she was looking at a screen projection of her vision for the future, she recited a list of plans to take Hannah to concerts and museums, to take her to her first “Nutcracker.” Then she looked at me and added, “Because I had mentors who did that for me.”

She told me about her dad, who worked for a company that distributed and serviced juke boxes. He used to bring home the classical music records that people didn’t want in their jukeboxes. No one in Jean’s family listened to them, so they were given to Jean, along with her own little player, so she could enjoy the music. Jean says that even at age six, she had a nice library of classical pieces, and she was regularly swept away by the glorious sounds.

Jean said her life was filled with people who were her arts mentors when her parents couldn’t be. Her grandfather didn’t have much money, but when he died, he left a little money to Jean so she could have violin lessons. Those lessons meant everything to a little girl, and a gesture like that was worth more to Jean than all the money in the world.

Jean finished her tale by saying, “Anyone can give things, but it takes a special person to give experiences.”

Jean’s story resonated strongly with me. Long before I had children, I decided I was going to be the Arts Mommy. Sure, I would do everything else a mom has to do, but I was not just going to trust that my children would become arts lovers by osmosis, or even through a very heavy deluge of art genes from both sides of the family. My kids are lucky, if you view the world through arts-colored glasses. They have an Arts Mommy, an Arts Daddy, two Arts Grandmas, two Arts Grandpas, and a host of Arts Aunts and Uncles. My husband and I dictatorially decided that we will adopt any of our kids’ friends who need arts mentors.

But Jean said she thinks that there are arts-minded people out there who don’t realize that some kids come from homes which don’t make a conscious effort to include the arts in the life of the family. Different strokes for different folks. But what if one of those homes includes a young Jean Vosti? Think of how an arts mentor could change that child’s world by being a companion for artistic exploration. Her point made me want to put my antennae up even higher to catch any wayward signals from young people looking for a guide.

Jean happens to be a trained pastry chef, and to end our conversation, she said, “I’m going to make sure Hannah has a life full of the arts and good food.” What a splendid life Hannah has ahead of her.

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