City: Azusa
Position Seeking: City Council

Question 1: Please share a meaningful experience you had with art (visual, dance, drama, music, media arts) while growing up and its impact on you.

While growing up, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of my High Schools Marching Band and Wind Ensemble. I made incredible friendships, learned the history of music and learned important leadership roles.
I proudly served as the Drumline Captain for 2 years.
Learning the origins and history of music gave me an entirely different perspective to the world of music around me, and just how much it is intertwined with emotion.
The summer going into my Senior year, I had a unique opportunity to work with a private organization that specialized in teaching music to children.
One portion of the work was children as young as 4 years old, learning how to play Violin. The 2nd part of the work was using music to teach Children with disabilities to crawl, using music.
Today, as a Father of 5 children, I have taken my love for the art of music, and shared it with my Children. My 6 year old and 12 year old are both learning the Violin and piano.

Question 2: What do you believe the role of City Council should be in developing and supporting the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

Creating programs, especially for our youth, are critical for future growth. In todays world, with cell phones and TVs everywhere, we need to take steps to ensure that our community has access to programs that allow them to use their creative talents effectively. Programs like music, drawing and painting and incredible ways we can occupy time with productive and thought provoking work.

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in advancing that vision?

Azusa has a reach history of early California. As mentioned in question two, creating programs geared at teaching different Arts, is critical for our future.
My vision for the city is kids being able to have the opportunity to use their talents in a creative environment. I dream of City buildings proudly displaying art work drawn by our very our residents. I dream of beautiful murals drawn on the side of buildings.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 6 jobs in LA County supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. If elected, how will you aim to ensure the continued vitality and growth of the creative economy and the artistic community that it supports?

The more programs we create in our community, the more people we can have working from the Art community as teachers and mentors. The more art we have in a city, the more opportunities the Art community has for earning a commission.