Michael Barnard, producing artistic director of Phoenix Theatre, was recently honored as an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient. Here in New York Harbor, 12 million immigrants entering Ellis Island sought the rewards of America from 1892 to 1954. As described by the Honor Society, “The Ellis Island Medals of Honor embody the spirit of America in their salute to tolerance, brotherhood, diversity and patriotism. Barnard’s paternal grandmother came through Ellis Island just before the Nazi occupation of France in 1941. His grandfather helped found Glendale with Senator Carl Hayden. Others include former Vice President Joe Biden, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Malala Yousafzai, Coretta Scott King, John Sculley, Muhammad Ali, Lee Iacocca and Rosa Parks. “[The arts] help make us strong, individually and together,” Barnard says. “They offer innovative, evocative ways to build acceptance, hope and tolerance.”

The world is celebrating what would have been the 100^th birthday of Leonard Bernstein in 2018. Winner of 16 Grammys, Bernstein (1918–1990) was music director of the New York Philharmonic, 1958–1969, and its laureate director until his death. In this spirit, pianist and teacher Jeffrey Siegel recently appeared at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, continuing his 39 years of Keyboard Conversations® there: “Leonard Bernstein at 100: A Musical Celebration.”  In his performances, he plays virtuoso works for the piano by a broad range of composers and briefly discusses the works before playing them. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Siegel’s programs strengthen the fragile bonds of communication between composer and listener.” And, he continues a Bernstein tradition of teaching. Aaron Stern, the founder and president of the Bernstein-inspired Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, has said, “Apart from his composing and conducting legacy, Mr. Bernstein has inspired us to affirm his belief in people: to allow each of us to be changed by each other and expand our joy for each other.”

Folk music continues its legacy in festivals such as this longstanding one in Tucson. When I was growing up in the ’60s, folk had a robust presence in America through the great social commentary songs of artists such as Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary and Arlo Guthrie. Today, that aspect of American music is gone from the marquee, but the music of America, its history, regions, cultures and peoples remains strong. Please consider attending in 2019.

“I can only cry out and implore, ‘Open wide. Let us out,’ wrote Anne Frank in what became the famous ‘Diary of Anne Frank” after its post-World War II publication. The teenage writer was one of 60,000 Jews who found home in Amsterdam, attempting escape from the Nazis, who eventually captured the city July 6, 1942, and began searching for them. Frank died of typhus at one of the death camps, Bergen Belsen, in early 1945, perhaps two months before the liberation of Europe by the Allies. Recently, David Ira Goldstein, who completed 26 years as artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company in June 2017, returned to the Valley to direct an adaptation of the original Broadway play. The Anne Frank cast featured  Naama Potok, daughter of author Chaim Potok, who was Edith, Anne’s mother. The play summons vigilance, self-evaluation and affirmation: “Hatred is a choice,” she says. “We can choose a different path.”

In 2016, we celebrated the centenary of the National Park Service (NPS), which was established “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Even before those first parks, national monuments and Native American reservation sites were set in 1916, the arts were connected with these special places and, in fact, helped to make the argument for the NPS. Some of these early artists were Thomas Moran, George Catlin, Thomas Cole, Thomas Hill, Thomas Doughty, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, Gunnar Widforss and John Fery. And, today, a new generation of artists continues that tradition in an increasing variety of media.

In 1937, 20-plus Frank Lloyd Wright apprentices began construction of Taliesin West in the Sonoran Desert foothills, now Scottsdale. Hundreds of later apprentices would add to the great architect’s winter home and school as part of their learning experience with him until his death in April 1959. The 555-acre campus became a National Historic Landmark in 1982, and this year celebrates 77 years since the groundbreaking. Among these apprentices: Cornelia Brierly, 99, who died a month after this story was written and was on site when Wright decided to build Fallingwater where it now is; her sister, Hulda; John Lautner and his wife, Mary Bud; Arnold Roy; John Rattenbury; Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer; Kamal Amin; Vern Swaback, whose firm is in Scottsdale; and Paolo Soleri, who died in 2013. We celebrate their achievements and that of Taliesin West.

Every year in Scottsdale, 50,000 or so visitors view the work of 100 artists from throughout the country at the Celebration of Fine Art (CFA). In 2014, the annual arts event continued through March 23 at the southwest corner of the Loop 101 and Hayden Road. Part gallery, wording studio and juried art show, the event showcases the art beneath 40,000 square feet of signature white tents. Outside is a one-acre landscaped sculpture garden. A major dynamic is its variety of styles and mediums, with bronzes and ceramics, furniture, figurative and representational paintings of artifacts, such as paintings of beaded moccasins and weavings. What’s more, offerings are always changing, as artists create in interactive studios beside their galleries while the CFA continues. So, sketch out some space in your calendar this winter for this colorful arts event.

The STEM Gallery, a recent addition at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in north Phoenix, focuses on the beautiful connections between music and science. STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, a focus of 21^st-century education. The gallery explores themes of sound creation, technological innovation, the human ear, hearing safety and other topics. Opened in 2010, MIM showcases musical instruments and offers performance videos, interactive technology, changing exhibits and live musical performances to show how we innovate, adapt, and learn from each other to create music. “For years, we have offered a STEM + Music field trip option, and this new gallery takes our commitment to STEM education to the next level,” says Brian Dredla, director of Education and Public Programs. “The STEM Gallery challenges guests to think about and appreciate music and musical instruments in new ways." Put this on your must-see, and -hear, list.

Touch the sculpture. Wrap your hands around its energy, its sensual curves, its spirit. David Unger, a Tucson retiree, has sculpted in wood, stone and wire, but he prefers the malleability of clay, how a piece changes from conception to completion as a final bronze artwork. Back East, he worked in advertising and later was a manufacturer until  he retired West. “I like to say, I took a 30-year break from sculpting,” he says. “Lots of my friends are afraid to retire; they have nothing to do,” he adds. “But retirement is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, next to my wife and children. My life is better now than it ever was, and I am taking more pleasure in it than anything I ever did.”

Image matters, even for icons: For the last 20 years of Frank Lloyd Wright's life, Pedro ('Pete') Guerrero was the great architect's personal photographer. The long-time resident of Florence, a small town south of Phoenix, Guerrero took not only some of the last pictures of Wright and his work but also some of the best. Make a quick f-stop and get some new perspectives on America's greatest architect. And focus a moment on Pete, too, a delightful man, now passed.

Auburns, Delages and Delahayes, Oh my! At a Phoenix Art Museum exhibition a few years back, we delighted in these and other gorgeous, voluptuous autos and vans, including a Hispano-Suiza and a McLaren. Here the beauty of flowing lines and svelteness meets the beast of power and steel. The union is class and passion. These mobile beauties will drive you to an aesthetic experience. Buckle up!

Cultural diversity and the complexity of contemporary society are the focus of The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Wealth Management Art Collection through April 28, 2013, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). From realistic to abstract, serious to whimsical, The Human Touch represents selections from the more than 400 artworks in the RBC collection. Topics explored include hybrid racial identities, family dynamics and ethnic heritage and stereotypes.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage masterpiece, "The Phantom of the Opera," re-visited ASU Gammage in Tempe a few years ago, we spoke with Valley-born lead, Gary Mauer, who had earned his bachelor's degree in musical theater from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Unmasking, he swept us deep under the Paris Opera House for some dramatic revelations.

Assisted by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, we selected 12 iconic artworks located throughout Arizona: a Joe Sorren mural in Flagstaff; Janet Echelman's centerpiece sculpture in downtown Phoenix; Dennis Oppenheim and Louise Bourgeois sculptures; Arizona's most famous mission, San Xavier del Bac in Tucson; the Cosanti Foundation Bells and Bridge in Scottsdale; and other treasures statewide. You'll even find some LOVE here, in a spirit of the '60s: the landmark Robert Indiana sculpture in Old Town Scottsdale.Take the tour, and Peace.