Last week, I read in Arts Watch that the arts in my hometown of Fairfax County, VA, are threatened due to significant budget cuts. When I was in high school, the public schools in Fairfax County were ranked among the top in the country. We had access to band, orchestra, a great theater department, and many visual art courses to choose from. I took music theory, a course that put me ahead of my classmates when I started college as a freshman music major.

The news about Fairfax County saddened me, because I know that without access to the arts, my career would be very different then what it is today. It also led me to ask a question—if it’s not the public school system’s responsibility to provide a quality arts education for students, then whose is it? Is it the responsibility of non-profit arts organizations? Government? Parents?

I’ve been thinking about this question a lot, and also reminiscing about my own experience in the arts as a young child. While I recognize that the answer to my questions may differ depending on who is answering, when I ask myself again whose responsibility it is to provide quality arts education to children my answer is—it is everyone’s responsibility.

When you look back on your love of the arts, was there one person who inspired you? Perhaps it was a high school English teacher that incorporated art history into the classroom. Or it was a dancer teacher that encouraged personal creativity in the dance studio, even among the younger students. Did you take a middle school drama class that allowed you to make lifelong friends and help set a course for your career?

The stars and director of the upcoming movie Me and Orson Welles—Claire Danes, Zac Efron, and Richard Linklater—shared these personal stories and more at a screening in Washington, DC, in partnership with Americans for the Arts and Impact Arts + Film Fund on Tuesday night. The screening panel was moderated by Washington Post education writer Valerie Strauss and also included Bob Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts.

While in Washington, the filmmaker and actors joined Americans for the Arts and Impact Film + Arts Fund at advocacy meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House to discuss with policy makers the critical issues facing arts education in schools today. They met with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Kalpen Modi, Heather Higginbottom, and Rachel Goslins, among others.

The group also sat down for a video interview for Americans for the Arts. Check back on ARTSblog in a few days for the interview and to find out who was inspired by each of the teachers mentioned above.

I admit it, casinos fascinate me. Part of what fascinates me about them is how they are designed. Most casinos, particularly the big ones, are perfectly designed to do two things:

1.  Detect cheaters.
2.  Spot whales.

What's a whale? A whale is a high stakes gambler. These are the people who are capable of gambling away hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars, in a few days. The whales are what creates the profit margin, so when one of them walks into a casino you can almost feel the whole place shift in their direction. If the whale loves Chinese poker then PRESTO, Chinese poker tables magically appear. If the whale loves Cheetos and orange soda, then a waitress suddenly has a stockpile of both at hand. There is virtually no level a casino will not go to in order to keep a whale happy.

Ready for the arts tie-in for all this? Here it comes...