Staying productive...music sure helps

Staying motivated and productive lately, actually who am I kidding, a lot of the time, can be a challenge. Especially when I feel I've lost my writing mojo. Hey, it happens.

Somehow though, I always crawl back out of the procrastination and get to work. I'm finding that easier to do lately, when I listen to music. It gets me moving, singing and almost immediately the creative juices start flowing.

To me, this is proof that the arts matter, something I've spent most of my life advocating for through my work. I've been attending cultural events since my teens, wrote about them at my first professional job and still do and spent nearly two decades volunteering at my city's contemporary art museum MOCA. Music, art, theater, dance, performing arts, ALL of it matters.

Just like my Spotify playlist helps me get my work done, lifting me out of what sometimes feels like an endless funk, the arts help expand kids' minds, create more well-rounded individuals and bring communities together. It's been proven time and time again that arts education helps students thrive and perform better academically.

Engaging in the arts is a subliminal history lesson. A lesson into the evolution of a time period, into an artist's culture and background, into the events of an era. Even contemporary art is rooted in history, albeit a more recent history but history nonetheless.

Think of that the next time you visit a gallery or museum, attend a play, concert or dance performance. Truly immerse yourself in the artwork or what's happening on the stage because that's history you're witnessing.

And yes, I realize right now we can't attend any performances or visit any galleries or museum but...you can visit and experience them virtually.

Here are a few resources to do just that:

Livestream of musical performances

Visit museums, theater and attractions

Virtual tour of museums worldwide

Arsht@Home virtual programming

Metropolitan Opera streams performances

Now go, immerse yourself in culture...and learn something in the process.