Day 972: The Little Art Place

Quite a large number of people join the Foreign Service as their first career; fresh out of college and off into the great big world.  Honestly, there is something truly remarkable about such ambition, coupled with accomplishment.  Knowing exactly what you wanted out of life and grabbing it immediately.  It’s cool stuff… and as cool as it is, I am certainly not one of those people… I guess you could say I’m a bit of a Foreign Service late bloomer.

But don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE being second career Foreign Service.  The perspective of previous experience is invaluable… and sure, many first career folks don’t fully understand those benefits, I think it’s easy to make the presumption that people change careers because they were unsuccessful or got bored, but that’s not always the case, sometimes the simple idea of ‘adventure’ or ‘change’ can point people in new directions.

I, for one, LOVED my work in Arts Management… more specifically, Grassroots Community Arts Management.  I’m still friends with everyone I worked with and I still keep tabs (from afar) on programs I started that are still going on, thriving beyond my expectations.  I didn’t leave The Art Place (www.theartplace.us) and The Mable House (www.mablehouse.org) because I didn’t like working there… I left because it was time to go and challenge myself in new ways.

Dear God, what’s my point?  Why wax on about first career vs second career… and reminiscing about old jobs?  Get to the point!

Well… sometimes, the sum of all of your experiences comes together into one very awesome moment.

And for me, that moment was discovering ‘The Little Art’ (http://www.thelittleart.org/). 

From their website:

 

What exactly do we do?

We use media arts, film precisely, to teach children and young adults to recognize and begin to understand the social issues pervading their immediate community that prohibit the development of the project's ideas and principals.

The curriculum and programming to teach children to recognize those social issues focuses on learning the process of making films. At its foundation, the curriculum will also provide life-skills for addressing those issues AND for moving forward as responsible, productive members of whatever society or culture they should choose to inhabit. 

We produce the Lahore International Children’s Film Festival and Children’s Performing Arts Festival, hold film-making workshops for children and young people, organize workshops in photography, digital art, stop motion, animation and performing arts. 

We curate and develop arts education projects for schools and organizations. We provide arts education consultancy services to organizations working for children and young people, specially marginalized and from low income backgrounds. 

We aim to grow in the area of career counseling for young people, while introducing arts-based tools so they can make appropriate career choices.

So, back to my point. 

I don’t think it takes much for your average person to recognize a really cool program with a lot of heart like ‘The Little Art’. 

I, however, identify with this program on a much deeper level.  And this perspective, of course comes from my first career… but I never would have been in the position to truly appreciate ‘The Little Art’ if it wasn’t for my second career.

The folks at ‘The Little Art’ in Pakistan are doing exactly what I was doing in The States.  And I’m not just throwing around the word ‘exactly’ arbitrarily… I mean I was doing the EXACT same thing: using arts education to instill life-skills in an underserved community.

And I tell you what… the respect for Arts Education in The States is a steep uphill battle and I can guarantee you that my job was WAY easier than what’s facing the folks at ‘The Little Art’. 

It’s awesome stuff.