Communiqué
An actor goes back to school to demonstrate the transformative power of arts education in ART HAPPENS HERE WITH JOHN LITHGOW – Dec. 9 at 10 pm
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Monday, December 9, 2024
Join the Emmy and Tony Award-Winning Actor as He Goes Back to School to Celebrate the Transformative Power of Arts Education
Credit: Photographer Jessica Howes / © PBS So Cal
In the PBS special ART HAPPENS HERE WITH JOHN LITHGOW, actor, author, humorist and renowned performer John Lithgow (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Crown,” “The Old Man”) shares his passion for arts education by joining students and teachers at four Los Angeles organizations, diving into four arts disciplines: dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz ensemble. Celebrating how arts education nurtures and inspires the hearts and minds of students of all ages, ART HAPPENS HERE follows Lithgow as he tries his hand at singing, dancing, printmaking, and pottery, working alongside and learning from young people whose lives are being transformed by art.
Growing up, Lithgow wanted to be an artist and was inspired and encouraged by his public school art teachers. As the years have passed, he’s come to see those teachers as his heroes, responsible for instilling him with confidence, curiosity and a sense of self.
“Education involves much more than just the basic academic subjects and preparing kids for being tested and evaluated. Arts education is an anchor that provides a child emotional and social development and a sense of who they are in the world,” says Lithgow. To illustrate his point, Lithgow visits four organizations that are making a difference in the lives of young people: Self Help Graphics & Art, a pioneering Chicano community organization at the intersection of arts and social justice; the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a nonprofit school offering dance classes to people of all ages; the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge, home of a nationally renowned ceramics studio; and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), a specialized public school open to aspiring young artists throughout Los Angeles County.
Credit: Photographer Antonio Diaz / © PBS SoCal
As he makes his first pot, collaborates with a young artist on a silk-screen print, learns new dance techniques and gamely joins a group of talented jazz vocal students for a concert, Lithgow revels in the sense of discovery, creativity, and camaraderie that the arts can offer. “The arts give young people tools to move through life. They teach them discipline and hard work, patience and civility. They give young people a sense of empathy. After all, art is about communicating with other people. Through the arts, young people find out who they are and where their imagination will lead them. It happened to me.”
John Lithgow’s roots are in the theater. In 1973, he won a Tony Award two weeks after his Broadway debut in David Storey’s “The Changing Room.” Since then, he has appeared on Broadway 25 times, earning five more Tony nominations, a second Tony, four Drama Desk Awards, and induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame. Lithgow has also appeared in a long list of critically acclaimed films, landing Oscar nominations for “The World According to Garp” and “Terms of Endearment.” Other features have included “All That Jazz,” “Footloose,” “Shrek,” “Interstellar,” “Bombshell” and, more recently, Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the “Flower Moon” and Edward Berger’s forthcoming “Conclave.” Lithgow has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for his work on television. He has won six times: once for an episode of “Amazing Stories,” once for Showtime’s “Dexter,” once for the role of Winston Churchill in Netflix’s “The Crown,” and three times for playing High Commander Dick Solomon on the hit NBC comedy series “3rd Rock from the Sun.” He received his latest Emmy nomination in the HBO television reboot of “Perry Mason” with Matthew Rhys. Currently, he is starring alongside Jeff Bridges in the FX drama series “The Old Man.” In the last three years, Lithgow has joined Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as co-chairs of a Commission on the Arts for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Under their leadership, the Commission has produced authoritative reports on arts in education and America’s creative workforce. The original concept for ART HAPPENS HERE took shape during the Commission’s deliberations.