Art and Kindness
I’ll share two stories.
A young music teacher decided to use music to help keep kids off the street and away from cartel violence in Reynosa, Mexico. He had to teach in secret, because to build anything prominent in the private sector would make both him and his students vulnerable.
He heard about a concert we were presenting, and brought his kids – somehow – from Reynosa to Austin because he thought they would be inspired. He packed their little guitars with them in hopes they might be able to play for the artist.
We heard about it, got totally inspired, and made arrangements. We adjusted our game-day schedule to accommodate them, the artist agreed to teach before her concert (a bit unusual), we got them complimentary concert tickets, and arranged for Spanish speaking greeters to wait for their arrival.
After the whole experience the teacher followed up with the most amazing note of gratitude. He also said he’d like to do what’s necessary to build our school education programs throughout Mexico—that project is currently underway. Thousands of kids lives, stretching far into the future, will be positively affected by this initiative.
But the key is this: it all came about, according to him, because of the kindness he was shown by our team when they arrived. It was a totally unexpected welcoming kindness, and it moved him to want to learn more about us, to feel empowered to reach out about partnership, to be inspired to pursue a big dream. I know this is true, because he has told me (and others) this, many times, both in writing and in person.
On another occasion a woman told me over drinks she would like to give our organization $50,000. $10,000 a year for 5 years. I did not know this person very well at the time, but she had attended some of our concerts. I asked her why she had chosen us for this wonderful gift. The answer? Kindness. “When I come to your concerts, I always feel so welcome, so special, so important, and when this opportunity to support came along, I thought of you.”
There are so many ways to serve the community with art. But one of the most powerful and most important, and most achievable with focus and discipline, is kindness—in the classroom, the concert hall, in person, over email, on the phone…you get the idea.
Photo by Andrew Thornebrooke on Unsplash
