Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I'm Grace Robinson, the Executive Director at the Gadsden Arts Center and Museum. It began as an art center back in 1994, and an art center is typically a community gathering place, and it's a place where the emphasis is for people to make and learn about art. A museum is a little bit different than that it's a collecting institution, and it also centers a lot of its programming around a robust exhibition program. So the exhibitions are the heart of a lot of what happens at Gadsden Arts. There is a transformative power in the arts, and that happens on so many levels. The arts are used right now as an anchor for community redevelopment across the country. The arts also bring people together for a common cause and help people understand one another who normally would not associate with each other. So you're redeveloping a community by creating new understanding and new relationships. And then the arts are a rich source of education. They really help develop our children in terms of teaching them creative intelligence. They learn how to invent new solutions to problems. They learn how to analyze and evaluate what they've created. The arts improve communities from all angles. I am inspired by working as part of a team for the greater good, simply to contribute something positive to the people around me and the community to make good things happen day in and day out, and being part of a nonprofit organization that brings the arts to people is an extremely powerful way to do that. Grace Robinson, Executive Director of the Gadsden Art Center and Museum. You're listening to Voices That Inspire.