The President's Community Forum Series hosted by UOP at Haggin Museum

I was invited by the CEO of the Cultural Heritage Council to attend "Beyond our Gates Into the Community" the final part of the President's community forum series. The event was held at Haggin Musium and had a panel of community leaders and educational professionals. The forum covered the subject of how we as a communities can help to bring back the arts. Mr. Peter Jaffe music director of the Stockton Symphony for 15 seasons explained how music has been found to help with many different facets of learning. He used the example of how children learn the alphabet in song. Robert Rojas(CEO of CHC), explained how artist and facilitators need to communicate more eficently .Paula Sheil the current Chair of the Stockton Arts Commission spoke about how we as a people use to decorate our cloths , silver ware and other items and today have mass production in it's place. There were other speakers on the panel who made very simulare statments, but what it all comes down to is we need to get involved. I found the general air of the forum to be rather grim but also see how we can change that by just getting involed. It dosn't matter who you are or what you do.We are all capable of creating and we all need to express ourselves. Indavidualy we may feel small, but together we are powerful.