Chalk It Up to Imagination
Jonathan Slawson knew he needed to get things organized.
Slawson, a junior majoring in Music Education with a minor in Arts Administration, and his colleagues of Rider University’s Creative Arts Solutions Today (RU:CAST) were planning its Blatant Self-Promotion Brunch for students to network with art agencies. There needed to be a central spot where everyone could leave messages to each other.
He came up with a solution. Forget about posting on each other’s Facebook walls or instant messaging. Instead, Slawson went back to the basics, his mentor, Midge Guerrera, recalled.
He painted one wall with blackboard paint in the room in Guerrera’s office where the students met. With chalk, the students could leave messages for each other in large, graffiti-like scrawl.
“It was the most amazing, inventive tool,” said Guerrera, an adjunct faculty member, who teaches classes for the arts administration minor at the Westminster College of the Arts. “Going back to the basics; it was brilliant.”
Slawson said he painted the wall as a gift to Guerrera for encouraging him to apply to the International Federation for Choral Music’s first International Forum – Voice, Youth and Arts. He was one of three students selected to attend the February event in Caen, France, with more than 60 students from 40 countries in attendance.
The three-day forum was designed for youths interested in arts management, particularly the organization of international choral events. The event featured lectures, workshops and arts professionals. Such topics included intercultural arts management, choral organizations and events, cultural policies, and the impact of choral music on social and personal development.
Slawson said the forum brought different cultures together to discuss issues in choral music and arts management.
“I think being with kids around the world is an experience you rarely get,” he said.
Since his freshman year at the Westminster College of the Arts, Slawson has had quite an experience, keeping himself immersed in campus activities and summer internships.
“He takes advantage of opportunities he is confronted with,” explained Guerrera. “Some students don’t, but Jonathan just does it.”
It was an elementary school teacher who prompted the idea for Jonathan to explore music.
“She told my mother that I had talent,” he said, though his mom skeptically insisted the teacher “had the wrong kid.”
But, Slawson, who studies voice, attended the American Boychoir School in Princeton and later attended Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. This experience allowed him to travel to various countries, including Europe and Asia.
At Westminster, he keeps his schedule full of classes, activities and beefing up his résumé. The self-proclaimed coffee addict wakes up at 5:30 each morning and goes to bed by 1 a.m. He spends about three to four hours dedicated to extracurricular activities.
Slawson is the treasurer of RU:CAST, president of the Programming Board at Westminster and a member of the Music Educators National Conference. He’s worked in the marketing department at McCarter Theatre in Princeton and in the education department at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Slawson also does work for In Tune Monthly, a music education magazine for high school students produced by Disney. Slawson has earned Dean’s List honors and is in the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Fraternity.
“I have trouble saying no,” he said with a laugh. But in all seriousness, he said he has learned a lot about time management.
Guerrera described Jonathan as well organized and a motivator to others. She said he plays an integral role in event planning and setting up as a RU:CAST member.
“Jonathan has the ability when producing an event to see at first glance the entire picture and then dissect that picture to its smallest, smallest pieces to develop an appropriate plan,” she said.
Those are exactly the type of skills needed in the field of arts administration, which includes producers, box office managers, event planners and marketers.
“I enjoy making events here successful,” Slawson explained.
But it’s also important to gain experience for his future career. Slawson plans to work in arts education at a cultural center after school. But for now music is a central part of his life at Westminster.
“I think Westminster is the perfect place for me,” he said. “It’s great to be in a conservatory-type setting. I’m studying education and business, and being surrounded by the arts is great.”
