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A Ride to the Arts (Fall 2004) By Daniel Davidzon , Contributing Editor 
Imagine a world where your children roam freely, withoutfear of what may be lurking around the next corner. Picture a scenario in which your young son or daughter comes bounding down the stairs and into the living room where you sit with your newspaper and the television tuned into the afternoon ball game. As opposed to sitting at home, eating chocolate chip cookies and watching cartoons, what if your children were to spend their time at museums, art exhibits and playhouses instead? After all, as children we all remember being told to do something productive with our time. With that in mind, Patti Smith, the owner of Art Expressions Gallery, Inc. created ArtsBusXpress. Designed as a non-profit program allowing children the opportunity to visit cultural centers around the city of La Jolla, California, Smith has seen over 7,500 children transported to venues such as the La Jolla Playhouse, UCSD Gallery and other art, music, dance and theatre locales in and around the neighbouring areas. In action for two years, ArtsBusXpress relies on sponsors, both corporate and individual, for its funding. The support received from within the Art & Framing communities has been tremendous. ArtsBusXpress sponsors include: ArtAffairs.com Inc, Crescent Cardboard Co, Décor Expo (Pfingsten Publishing, L.L.C.), Fine Art Impressions (Bentley Publishing Group), Larson Juhl, Winn Devon Fine Art Publishers and Wizard International, Inc. to name a few. It operates on the principle that due to a lack of funding in public schools, children do not have the means to experience that aspect of culture. While parents do their best to instill in their children a knowledge of art and culture, it remains limited when the child cannot associate it with something they have actually seen. “We do not value what we do not experience,” points our Cheryl Brown, executive director of ArtsBusXpress. “Parents are working all the time and there’s no one to take them, there’s no one to explain it.” Working in conjunction with local San Diego schools and their unified transportation system, ArtsBusXpress transports students to concert halls and museums, providing them with the chance to learn about various cultural and artistic outlets. Another benefit of the program is its financial appeal. An entire busload of children can be transported for roughly $150, which works out to approximately $3 per child. “If our children don’t have arts experiences and don’t have exposure to the arts, ultimately we are not going to have art aficionados, museum-goers, play-goers and then, ultimately, benefactors to the arts,” laments Smith. “It really affects our culture in a huge way.” For more information on ArtsBusXpress, check out: http://www.artsbusxpress.org 
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