“Fame! I wanna live forever…”

Maeve and I just sent Clark out to Vulcan Video to get the movie FAME.  (Vulcan Video is our last surviving Austin original home-grown video store. If you can’t find it at Vulcan, the movie does not exist.)  Why FAME? Maeve has been accepted at the McCallum Fine Arts Academy for high school.  It is the closest thing to the Performing Arts High School Model in New York on which the movie FAME was based.
I must confess that I was initially hesitant to support Maeve’s decision to go to McCallum. It is a public school (where are my politics now?) and Austin inner city schools certainly have their problems. Maeve also applied to two St.’s–St. Stephens and St. Andrews.  But the Saints have yet to come marching in with admission acceptances, and Maeve has decided she wants a public school experience after years of private, so here we are.  Actually, I am surprised by my initial  concern about her choice of visual arts. Because I am a visual artist one would think I would want to encourage my child in this direction since she has such aptitude, talent and propensity to do so!  Ah, it seems that for all my bohemian open-mindedness there is a conservative streak in me when it comes to my kids’ education.  I really had Maeve pegged as an “academic” (which she is) and thus wanted to encourage her to go to a school with a concentration in liberal arts to help develop her amazing intellect.  Alas, as all parents learn sooner or later, our children have minds of their own, and an inclination to do what they want to do.

I am not worried about Maeve. She will be fine wherever she goes. And truly, an art education can provide her with the skills necessary for survival in the 21st century: flexibility, adaptability, right-brain mode development. Indeed, I saw a book recently that talked about the importance of liberal and fine arts in educating people to be able to think creatively.  To have a child excited about art is such a thrill–and to have a program in our midst which encourages students to pursue a career in the arts could not be more perfect.

So we watched the FAME kids dance and sing and blunder their way through the NYPerforming Arts School, which did not minimize the vicissitudes and challenges of pursuing a career in the fine arts.  And my daughter and I smiled, knowing that her adventure lies before her and I will be dancing and singing and drawing along with her as she realizes her dream of being an artist.