MURFREESBORO — For almost three decades, the
Governor's School for the Arts has nurtured the “creative spark” of young
Tennesseans with a love for music, theatre, visual arts, dance and filmmaking.
As the program
kicked off its 30th anniversary this week at MTSU, the man who founded the
statewide summer programs for gifted high schoolers said his goal remains the
same for each participant: "aim for the top."
"The whole idea
was simply to find within our schools students who were really good, and who wanted
to be better, and to give them the opportunity to meet with other students who
felt the same way," U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Maryville, said at a
Tucker Theatre welcome ceremony for 305 new participants and their families,
event staff and counselors, and other guests on Sunday.
"Not only would
that help them be better, but whenever they went back home to their schools,
others would think 'Where'd they go and what did they do? And if it's that
important, maybe I should be thinking in the same way.'"
Alexander, himself a
musician since age 4, was governor in 1984 when he encouraged Tennessee
lawmakers to create summer residency programs for young people in the arts,
engineering and math, and international studies — one for each of the state's
three grand divisions.
Thirty years later,
there now are a dozen different Governor's Schools across Tennessee to immerse
dedicated 10th and 11th graders in their chosen fields for four weeks and give
them college course credit to boot. The arts school at MTSU is the state’s oldest
and largest with more than 9,000 alumni.
"All of this,
over the last 30 years, has helped lift up our state and caused us to think
more of ourselves. The Governor's Schools have grown, and they've become
terrifically important," Alexander, also a former U.S. education
secretary, said. "I have two former Governor's School students who work
with me in my Senate office."
Alexander joked that
excellence in the arts never precludes excellence in seemingly unrelated
fields, adding that even former Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan was
able to find a good job when Greenspan’s clarinet career at the Juilliard
School didn't pan out quite as he’d hoped.
"Whether you
become a professional or remain an amateur, your music will stay with you the
rest of your life,” Alexander told the standing-room-only audience.
“You are helping us
show that we can aim for the top in the arts and all the other activities we
have at the Governor's Schools. You are part of our effort to find the
excellence and to praise it."
2011 Governor’s
School theatre alumnus Zach Ginn, who helped emcee the welcome event, is now
majoring in human and organizational development at Vanderbilt. His captivating
demeanor while handling a happy crowd of nearly 1,000 could certainly be
learned in a boardroom, eventually, but his stage experience has obviously
given him an advantage.
"Creativity's
in many forms," Ginn said. "We talk about how in business you need
creativity to come up with your product or service and then must be able to
reach the customer with it. It's the whole left-brain connection that really
makes sense in solving problems as well as coming up with new ideas."
Dr. Raphael Bundage,
a vocal professor in MTSU's School of Music and the director of the Governor's
School for the Arts, agreed.
"We have
students who were in Governor's School everywhere now," Bundage said,
checking off the names of respected business leaders as well as “people in U.S.
government, singers at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, countless numbers of
teachers …
“Not everyone who
attends our Governor's School ends up in the arts. That mindset is there, though,
and that creative capacity is there. Whatever field they end up in, that
creative spark will be there and can be useful to them.”
The Governor's
School for the Arts runs through June 26 at MTSU. Public finale events will be
held on campus June 25 and 26. For more information, including applying for
next year's session of the Governor's School for the Arts at MTSU, visit http://gsfta.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment