More Than a Program: Creating Pathways Through the Arts

Participants of the 2026 John Coltrane Jazz Workshop for Middle and High School Students

At the High Point Arts Council, we often talk about the importance of bringing people together through the arts. But the true impact of our work isn’t always measured by attendance numbers or events on a calendar. Sometimes, the greatest impact happens long after a program ends—when a connection becomes an opportunity, a student gains experience, an artist receives a commission, or someone discovers a new pathway forward.

As Director of Programs and Community Engagement, I have the privilege of helping create those connections every day. Our programs are designed to be more than individual events. They are opportunities to connect, discover, create, and grow.

Through our programs, artists have celebrated commissioned work, launched businesses, expanded professional networks, and reached new audiences. Students and young people are building resumes, earning volunteer hours, gaining hands-on experience, connecting with internships and employers, and discovering how creativity can become part of their future.

Our John Coltrane Jazz Workshop students are a wonderful example. What begins as an intensive week of learning, mentorship, and musicianship doesn’t necessarily end with the final note. Students have performed at Day in the Park and the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival, gaining valuable stage experience and visibility that have helped open doors to additional performance opportunities. These young musicians have also had the opportunity to record music in the Notes for Notes studio, gaining firsthand experience in a professional recording environment.

There is another dimension to this work that is becoming increasingly important: the connection between the arts, our brains, and our overall well-being. In Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross explore how artistic experiences can influence our brains, emotions, learning, health, and well-being. Their research reinforces something we experience through our programs every day: the arts are not simply entertainment. They are part of how we learn, connect, express ourselves, and experience the world.

This is why HPAC is increasingly interested in the intersections between arts, wellness, and health care. Poetry can give people language for difficult experiences. Music can create connection and belonging. Visual art can encourage reflection and self-expression. Dance engages both body and mind, while theater invites us to see ourselves and others from new perspectives.

When we invest in the arts, we aren’t simply investing in performances, exhibitions, workshops, or festivals. We are investing in people. At HPAC, our goal is to keep building those pathways—connecting artists to opportunities, young people to experiences, community members to one another, and the arts to the broader needs of our community.

Because sometimes the most meaningful outcome of a program isn’t what happens while we’re there. It’s what becomes possible because we were.