By Marty Sklar, Founder, Past President, Chairman Leadership Council

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about the meaning of Thanksgiving, 2015 to Ryman Arts. To focus on the holiday itself, I discovered that the first official Thanksgiving in America was created in 1789 by our first President, George Washington. But it was not until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a National Holiday. (Don’t you dare tell anyone you never learned anything in “art school”!)

The Sharon D. Lund Foundation’s generous gift includes $500,000 to strengthen endowment as a matching challenge.    

The Sharon D. Lund Foundation’s long-time support helped build this organization to its present capacity.  Sharon Lund co-founded Ryman Arts 25 years ago, along with Anne and Buzz Price, Lucille Ryman Carroll, and Leah and Marty Sklar.  It is hard to believe it all started with a dozen kids in a warehouse studio, and Sharon helping founding executive director and sole employee Marshall Ayers to acquire a computer!

By Marty Sklar, Founder, Past Board President, Chairman Leadership Council

I’m very proud that as part of the Ryman Arts career program in the Spring semester, my colleagues at Ryman Arts – President Wayne Hunt, fellow Board members, Executive Director Diane Brigham and Education Manager Rebecca Tuynman – have chosen to provide each of our 300 high school artists with their own copy of my new book, One Little Spark! – Mickey’s Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering.

By Shannon Huang, Development & Communications Manager, Ryman Arts, and Tati Simonian, Grand Park

October is a great time of month for the arts. It’s National Arts & Humanities month, the month of the Inktober initiative, of The Big Draw, and most significant for Southern California, it’s the month of The Big Draw LA hosted by Los Angeles based non-profit, Ryman Arts.

By Marty Sklar, Founder, Past President, Chairman Leadership Council

Many of you are aware that The Walt Disney Company has been one of the most important supporters of Ryman Arts. In fact, The Disney Foundation (as it was then called) was the very first foundation to contribute to our program 25 years ago, recognizing the need for more opportunities in the arts for Southern California students.

By Lacey Waterman (Ryman Arts '02), Art Director and Graphic Designer

By Marty Sklar, Founder, Past President, Member of the Board of Directors

I had the privilege and pleasure to be one of the cast members whose Disney career began with the opening of Disneyland on July 17, 1955. On Friday, July 17, 2015 about a dozen of us were invited to ride in the Parade celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

By Sergio Rebia, Ryman Arts Faculty Member

In May, we published Foundersland: Inspiration from “Artists who can Teach” written by Marty Sklar on the importance of mentorship and teaching. Following this post, we have asked our faculty members why they teach, what they are inspired by, and what they hope their students will learn from the Ryman Arts program.