Profile_Ken Karakul and Jim Held:Layout 1
5/31/13
11:11 AM
Page 31
{upfront-profile}
& with
©The Palm Beach Post/ZUMA
Jim Held and Kenn Karakul
Yet when the old rules no longer apply, Karakul and Held believe new ones must be written and the writers will come from the next generation – if we can educate them. More than a decade ago, Karakul and Held discovered the Center for Creative Education. Established in 1994 by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, its mission is to integrate the arts and artists into the schools, especially those serving disadvantaged communities. It appears so removed from Palm Beach, but they consider it essential to the quality of life for the entire county. CCE involves 12,500 students at more than 90 schools and community centers such as Boys and Girls Clubs. It trains teachers countywide. For many years, it operated out of an old barracks near Palm Beach International Airport but, in 2005, the board (chaired from 2001 to 2010 by Karakul, who is now honorary chair), used an anonymous $1-million gift to buy an abandoned roller rink in the Northwood Village section of West Palm Beach. Work on the project is being completed in three phases. A Community Open House was scheduled for May 31 to mark the completion of the first phase, which will allow the CCE to move its offices to the new location and provide classrooms, rehearsal space and an art gallery. Future plans include space for in-house programming, to train teachers and artists in arts-integrated education and to create special programs for the community that will further the goals of creative learning. “One day an elderly black gentleman came up and said how wonderful it was to have this as a center for everyone, ‘because when I was a kid, we couldn’t go to that roller rink,’” Karakul says. “This building and the community grassroots and the changes we can make are very important to us. It’s another flavor, another piece of what we do.”
What drives your philanthropy? Karakul: We’re involved in programs around the world that help improve mind and body. We support a research program by a woman at the University of Miami to physically and mentally prepare soldiers going to and coming from combat areas. Those things have potential to make a difference. This is where I get my optimism. Why did you become involved in education and specifically the Center for Creative Education? Karakul: We have to focus on our home community because right now we are under-educating and underutilizing our young people. They’re dropping out. Something’s wrong with the system. Held: Once they have a few experiences where they do well – they get a good grade or a reward of some sort – it helps them develop a love of learning. The next time they’re given a challenge academically, it’s not as harsh. We need to use all the resources and talent in our community. We need artists in our education system. CCE employs 60, 70 artists, and the work helps to keep them in the community instead of taking their skills elsewhere. Plus CCE is the largest provider of afterschool care in the county. We provide the educational programs for the Boys and Girls Clubs. We teach them how to ignite students’ love of learning, to develop their abilities – and they all have abilities. Give an example of a typical CCE program. Karakul: Artists work with teachers to develop new lessons and tools that enrich and transform the educational experiences. For a unit on immigration, students interviewed parents and relatives about their ethnic backgrounds, then set up a mock immigration center and clinic with different inspection stations. At the end the kids say, “I get it.” What are your hopes for the future of the CCE? Karakul: We and other supporters feel strongly and committed millions of dollars to do this. But we need for more to step up from the entire county, because we serve the entire county. I just don’t understand why more people don’t invest in it. It’s so core, it’s so fundamental, it’s so necessary for a good world and a good future America. Everyone has a gift. We have to help them understand their gifts, stop calling them dummies because they got a low score on an FCAT exam. These are steps a community can take.
art&culture
|
31