The
Smith Center
Making Better Artists,
Lawyers and Veterinarians

By Myron Martin

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Education has always been at the heart of what we do at The Smith Center. I like to say that education is in our DNA: it’s what we do and it is who we are.

Las Vegas was the fourth city in America to be invited to participate in a new initiative from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Called “Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child,” the program was designed to assist communities with creating strategic plans that ensure access to quality arts education for local students. This initiative has now celebrated its fifth year in Southern Nevada.

The original Community Arts Team that launched the initiative here included representatives from local government as well as numerous community arts and education organizations. It is thanks to these extraordinary groups that this program exists today (in fact, it is the largest such program in the country), and because of it, kids are being inspired to learn. Whether local children are studying science, technology, engineering, or math, this program has helped integrate the arts into their lessons. The same is true for language arts and social studies. The arts help to frame a discussion and allow kids to visualize the topic at hand.

Smith Center programs like Camp Broadway, Disney Musicals in Schools and the Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards also give our kids a chance to learn through the arts. The truth is that most kids who come to The Smith Center for a performance, a workshop or a camp may not choose to make this their occupation. But I like to think that by being exposed to the arts, we are creating well-rounded citizens.

My hope is that teachers use the power of the arts to create better students, and that our kids become better people thanks to a level of engagement that only the arts can bring.

We have great teachers living here in Las Vegas. The Smith Center was proud to create The Heart of Education Awards last year, which honored 800 of our best educators and awarded 20 of them with cash gifts totaling $100k. Thanks to The Rogers Foundation, this program will continue for many years. By coming together and supporting our teachers, our community sent a message that we care about our schools, our kids and the people we trust to teach them. If you or your firm didn’t get involved last year, please join us this spring and see for yourself how our teachers are going above and beyond for our students.

By thanking our teachers and giving them tools they need to be successful, we can make a big difference. I thank the Kennedy Center for its leadership, and I thank the many groups that come together every year to make programs like Any Given Child work so successfully. One day we will look back and realize that we created a new level of artist, and in the process we also created a new level of citizens who were inspired by the arts. Here’s to the next class of artists, lawyers and veterinarians!

Myron G. Martin is president and chief executive officer of The Smith Center. Martin earned a bachelors degree in music from the University of North Texas, and an MBA from Golden Gate University. A proud Las Vegan, Martin calls Henderson home with his wife Dana Rogers Martin and daughter Molly.