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For local eighth grader Luca Ma, cello lessons at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View have taught him more than just musical skills. They’ve taught him how to be patient, how to slow things down.
“You can apply a lot of what you learn from music to everything in life,” Ma said. “At CSMA, I’ve been taught to enjoy music more than just to learn it.”
He picked up the cello around the age of nine, and while it was hard at first, Ma eventually found the right teacher at CSMA, who has coached him on the fundamentals and helped him appreciate the practice.
Ma is one of more than 800 students receiving private lessons at CSMA, a Mountain View-based nonprofit organization that has been offering both music and visual art classes for nearly six decades. The primary goal of CSMA is to ensure that everyone has access to art and creative opportunities, Executive Director Adriana Marcial said, describing it as a “bedrock” of the community.
“[CSMA] is a place for creators,” she said. “We have a place for those who are curious about making this a professional, very rigorous path for themselves, and we also have a place for somebody who’s just dabbling.”
CSMA offers music and visual arts education for students of all ages, from toddlers to adults. Its programs include music instruction in styles such as jazz, classical and contemporary, as well as art courses across various mediums, including ceramics, painting and sewing.
“Classes really allow people to dip their toes in and have a sense of community around them,” Marcial said. “When we are so focused all the time on our screens and being home, it’s really magical to be able to be with other people, creating.”
Through its Music4Schools and Arts4Schools initiatives, CSMA also delivers arts and music instruction to students in local public school districts. In the Mountain View Whisman School District, elementary school students participate in weekly classes, gaining hands-on experiences.
For more than 10 years, CSMA has worked with the Morgan Autism Center, AbilityPath and the Mountain View Los Altos High School District on a program called Artistic Intelligence. The initiative gives community members with disabilities, who are brought in from one of the three organizations, the chance to engage in art, music and dance courses.
In recent years, there has been a push for CSMA to expand its programming for people with disabilities. Starting in January, the nonprofit plans to launch a program called NeuroSpark, aimed at serving kids who are neurodivergent or have developmental disabilities, Marcial said.
In addition to providing opportunities for people to create art, the organization also hosts free events for people to experience the creativity and skill of others, such as its Community Concert Series and Community Arts Day Open House.
Securing sufficient funding is one of the major hurdles to the nonprofit achieving its goal of making art accessible for everyone, Marcial said. This is where community funds come into play, helping the organization pay for its operations, as well as create opportunities for people who might not otherwise be able to afford its services.
CSMA is a recipient of the Mountain View Voice holiday fund. Each year, donations to the Holiday Fund are divided equally among a group of local nonprofits that serve people in need. The Voice and Embarcadero Media Foundation, the nonprofit that now publishes the Voice, absorb all administrative costs to run the fund, and all donations are tax-deductible.
For more information about the Holiday Fund, go to mv-voice.com/holiday-fund. To give a donation online, go to embarcaderomediafoundation.org/holiday-fund/mountain-view. Checks can be made payable to Mountain View Voice Holiday Fund and sent to 2345 Yale St., FL 1, Palo Alto, CA 94306. The Holiday Fund campaign will run through mid-January, with grants awarded in the spring.