During her speech at the HBCU AccessFest, Hala Moddelmog, President and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, highlighted the significant role of arts and education in shaping Atlanta’s youth. Speaking to a room filled with students from prominent HBCUs like Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta, Moddelmog shared her thoughts on the transformative power of creativity. In her remarks, she touched on how the arts, particularly music, can enhance literacy, empathy, and emotional well-being, especially in a city facing a literacy crisis where less than 40% of children read at grade level by the third grade.
Hala Moddelmog: And us being corporate executives and people from our board, etc., we had the opportunity to talk to these absolutely incredible students. We had students from Morehouse, Spelman, Clark Atlanta, Oglethorpe, and many students from out of town, representing other HBCUs, who traveled to be here with us today. They were all spectacular. I had the opportunity to tell them that I thought they were just perfect because their plans for life and their plans for doing things for us are incredible.
I also want to mention that each of our partners is focusing on bringing out the entire community in Atlanta, so we appreciate that you are here today. We have been diversifying our program over the last, really, probably 10 years, to ensure that we have something for everybody. I think the ASO (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) is doing a fabulous job with that.
The other thing I want to mention is just a plug for our other two art partners. The play The Mountaintop is running right now at the Alliance Theatre. It’s an interesting take on Martin Luther King Jr., done by our own Tanache J. Say Boulding, artistic director. I would love for you to see that.
Over at the High Museum, we have an exhibit called The Giants, featuring Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’ private art collection, and it will blow your socks off. The pieces are huge, and they are wonderful. There’s just so much to do around here, as you can tell.
I also want to give a shout-out to our corporate partners who helped sponsor today. One I think you can see right here is Invesco QQQ. We’ve got the man wearing the flag, wearing the flag for his company. That is excellent. Our other partner is Delta Airlines. Any Delta Airlines people here? Let’s give them a big round of applause. Delta has supported us year in and year out, and Invesco couldn’t be more proud of our partnership with you guys. You just do so much for us.
I want to tell you just a couple more things before I pass the mic off. One thing we know about the arts is that it does so much more for the brains, souls, and hearts of young people than we might realize. There is so much data these days on what art can do for a child learning to read, for a child learning empathy, and for a child learning hope. There’s so much that music can do for mental, social, and emotional well-being.
I wish I had time to share all the data with you, but one of the biggest problems here in Atlanta is that less than 40% of our children are reading at grade level by the third grade. We have a literacy crisis in Atlanta, and we have data showing that the arts can help. So, I encourage you to bring your children out, talk up what art can do for our small children, and they will grow up to be like the amazing students I spent the morning with upstairs.
