We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle and Melanie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle Melanie below.

Danielle and Melanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

First, I think it’s important to note that Danielle and I have had different parental experiences when it comes to being in a household that had creative children. This anecdote is to highlight a moment for me, Melanie.

I remember the time I was about to be signed to Page Parks, a talent agency here in Texas at their local Houston office, and one of the things they told me to be prepared for was my travel to Austin or sometimes to LA for auditions and opportunities. We had gone through the whole thing, took the professional headshots, surpassed the screening auditions and all that was left was the final commitment. I was so excited and I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was to be at this stage of it. I had a car, I was fresh out of college and ready to figure out my next steps as an actor, not just for the stage but moving into film and print.

And I remember looking back to my mother, just for a look of final confirmation.

And she looked at me with that look. I’ve seen it so many times in my life at every large creative turn.

“I don’t think you can do all that,” she said, cooly. And this wasn’t from a complete financial concern…but one made out of control, one that would make me feel small and limit me to staying by her side.

And because she put that in my head, because I knew that I wouldn’t have her support, that I would have to fight for it, beg for it at every turn, or have to withstand her critical and judgmental comments that made me feel small and insecure about myself, I walked away.

I told this story recently to one of our Fine Arts Forward students. Since she was a freshman in high school and now a recent graduate from the University of Houston, this student has always been able to come to me for advice about her future career as an artist and performer. Most of our students at Fine Arts Forward are former students of ours, and she is my former student from teaching in Fort Bend.

Now that my student, let’s call her Angela, has successfully graduated with her BFA in performance, the next natural step, just as I remember it being mine, was to hopefully figure out a way to work consistently as an actor while living in a capitalist world with bills and rent and parents abiding by the stigma of having a child in the arts. And now that we are prepping Angela with her professional reels and submitting her headshots to local and LA talent agencies, she remarked on how I knew so much about it.

I say all of this to say, that I, unfortunately, had parents that did not provide what I felt was the best support to give. And it was my love of the arts that saved my life. And while I do not wish to be a parent myself, our mission at Fine Arts Forward is to always provide that support to our students, specifically for our BIPOC students.

One of the best bits of student feedback we received from our fundraiser at Marshall High school last year was that we:

Have the willingness to help, the eagerness to help, and the enthusiasm for the value of the arts.
Tailor our service to fit their needs, listening to our students, and supporting them thoroughly
Create an openness and safeness to decide their futures, which is so integral to possessing the self-confidence to explore art
And finally, we are TWO BLACK WOMEN EXCITED and passionate,” we feel like we are talking to our favorite cousin or our mom when we are passionate about something.”

This year we return back to the Marshall High School campus as well as team up with the George Bush High School campus, both from FBISD. We encourage parents to consider what the word “support” means to them and how their role as parents will affect their creative children looking for creative outlets and careers.

Danielle and Melanie love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Fine Arts Forward seeks to fill some of the voids of public K-12 arts education, such as students seeking information on how to pursue arts careers but lack money, resources, educators, or more to obtain such knowledge; our goal is to prioritize Black and other creatives of color. We’re looking to provide open-sourced and free information about a variety of art careers utilizing the knowledge of our network of creatives.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

This question is the answer to our mission statement.

Fine Arts Forward addresses the lack of support given to students pursuing college and career paths outside of the STEM-normative options presented in schools. We strive to provide perspective, suggest resources, answer questions, offer performance and essay critiques by connecting students with working professionals for assistance in the pursuit of their desired creative field.

Applying to college can be a very confusing, complicated, process, especially for those interested in studying the arts. In addition to essays and financial aid, prospective arts students have the added stress of portfolios to present and auditions to impress. Often, school counselors are overworked and ill-equipped to provide help to the average student looking to major in corporate environments; this leaves students interested in fine arts at a greater disadvantage to receive necessary information or worse, talked out of pursuing a “risky” career.

For BIPOC students and first-generation college students seeking higher education in fine arts OR wishing to dive straight into a creative profession, an already underserved population, implicit bias, and systemic oppression within institutions are an added challenge to navigate. We’ve been there, and want to provide real answers – the advice we wish we would’ve had. Although the adults in our lives were college-educated, they couldn’t offer any legitimate guidance on choosing the best arts program for us, because they simply didn’t know what to consider. We’d like to believe we made the right choice, but the opportunity to pick the brain of a like-minded professional before expensive life-changing decisions would’ve been comforting.

It’s our goal at Fine Arts Forward to provide a source of peace, confidence, and logic to every interested emerging arts professional.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Non-creatives should know that creativity is a skill that is needed throughout all industries. We would encourage them to self-reflect and ask why they don’t consider themselves creative; is there an art form they enjoy but are not “good” enough at it?

Contact Info:

• Website: fineartsforward.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fineartsforward/
• Other: https://fundrazr.com/FineArtsForward?ref=sh_4Ajj7b_ab_17MncBCXlEo17MncBCXlEo