The Governor’s School for the Arts just wrapped up its 33rd year of holding an intensive three-week summer program. For the first time since 1987, the GSA was held at the University of Kentucky.
Just after lunch on the last day before the final weekend performances, a group of budding singers warmed up with vocal exercises.
This year, the Governor’s School for the Arts included 256 rising high school juniors and seniors. There were 1,400 applicants. GSA Director Nick Covault said some participants go on to professional careers, but it’s not the goal of all.
“If you go into another field, whether that’s education or law, that you don’t check your creativity at the door, you take it with you. And as the students who have these innate creative abilities, they have an augmented ability to foster things like connection, empathy, innovation and a lot of the soft skills that are needed to be a contributing member of society,” said Covault
Covault said there are GSA alumni in the arts profession including a cast member of the Broadway play Hamilton and an illustrator for the New York Times. He said Kentucky is one of the few programs in the nation where students attend tuition free. “One of the perks of attending this program is that there are 30 colleges and universities across the country that offer scholarships, specifically targeted to GSA alumni. So, for a lot of our students, getting into this program means either access to college or access to college with much less debt,” noted Covault.
In addition to gaining instruction in one of nine different arts forms, participants at the Governor’s School for the Arts also take part in community service and hear speakers with experience in their arts interest.
Louisville’s Fatama Alderawi was a part of the visual arts program. She enjoys print making with carvings which involves large stamps. Alderawi said she has a new found love now for ceramics and sculpture. And meeting new people in different art forms she says is exciting. Alderawi said arts expression allows everyone to feel “invited” to individual cultures. “I want to leave and have a great big invitation on my face for anybody to come look on my art so they can learn more about my culture, my family, and my background and everybody else who happens to have the same background as me, hijab, Muslim, Arab American,” explained Alderawi.
Gus Lynch of Muhlenberg County took part in drama sessions at GSA. He said he acted in his first play in the sixth grade. A year before that, he performed in a TV commercial for a firm which uses equipment to level foundations. Coming from a small rural community in west Kentucky, Lynch admits he was a bit unsure when he came to Lexington this summer. “Tons of anxiety coming in because I knew there was going to be me here from a very small town going into classes with people that go to arts schools that focus on acting and it was a bit intimidating. But that’s gone well?...it has gone well. Everyone here is just so loving and so supportive. And it feels like an equal playing field,” noted Lynch.
Andy Reeves of Louisville says he was not a GSA participant, but assisted last year as well. And he said he’s caught the bug and would someday like to be an administrator of this kind of program. Reeves said he’s interested in helping the immigrant population and people on the fringes of society. “Through programs like this we see over and over again that the arts empower people beyond just knowing how to play an instrument or knowing how to dance or read a monologue. It empowers people to be better versions of themselves and to want to better the world around them,” remarked Reeves.
Just behind Reeves a group of vocal arts participants were undergoing warming up exercises. Just one snippet of arts in motion during the 33rd edition of the Governor’s School for the Arts.
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