By Daily Press staff
Producer/Writer/Director Paul Haggis, who took home the Best Picture award at the 2005 Academy Awards last week for his critically acclaimed film “Crash,” will be appearing on behalf of For The Arts at the 57th Annual “Stairway of the Stars” at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium today at 7:30 p.m. Haggis will address a sold-out audience on the importance of arts education in public schools.
“It is an honor to appear at Stairway this year” Haggis said. “I believe in the power of music and arts education for all students. I am committed to the work that For The Arts does to ensure that this vital aspect of a child’s education remains a part of our community public schools forever.”
Haggis is a founding member of the For The Arts steering committee and remains a stalwart advocate and spokesperson on behalf of For The Arts. Past guests at Stairway have included musical giant Jackson Browne (2005) and The Doors’ drummer, John Densmore (2003).
“Stairway of the Stars” is the musical centerpiece of the award-winning Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Music Program. The evening features more than 1,000 musicians and represents the best of what the school district has to offer in music education.
The “Stairway” event also will feature guest conductor Eric Whitacre. An accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, Whitacre has quickly become one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. The Los Angeles Times has praised his compositions as “works of unearthly beauty and imagination, (with) electric, chilling harmonies,” while The Philadelphia Inquirer has called him “the hottest thing in choral music.”
For The Arts, the Campaign for the Education Foundation of Santa Monica- Malibu, is a community-wide effort to raise $15 million to ensure that every student in the Santa Monica-Malibu public schools, beginning in the earliest grades, receives a broad introduction to the arts: music, visual arts, dance and drama. For The Arts was founded by a group of local passionate and concerned parents and has become a community-wide effort to raise awareness about the crisis that faces the nation’s public school children. For The Arts is a national model for arts education. Death penalty to be debated
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 17, 2006. Read the original PDF.