As part of NYC’s Summer Streets program, Park Avenue is closed off on three Saturdays in August, and features bike riding, concerts, and most importantly… pools made of dumpsters! I couldn’t miss it, so my sweetie and I got up super early Saturday to make sure we got a slot. We arrived around 7:15am, and were the 20th and 21st people in line, so we got to swim during the first time slot!

The dumpsters are brand-new, and have been converted into pools according to city specifications (decks, filtration systems, etc.). I think I would have liked it more had they been used dumpsters, but nobody asked me!

It turns out that a dumpster is very small! The width of the pool is about the length of my body, and if more than one or two people are in the pool, mobility is limited. But at the end of the session, I got the pool all to myself, and leaped in. Turns out, the rule is no jumping as well as no diving. I kind of hurt my butt, so I guess the rule makes sense. [Insert sheepish look here.]

Ben Aaron of NBC News was reporting from inside the pool….

…and you can see us at about 1:10 in the video from the NBC website.

You’ve got two more Saturdays to experience the dumpster diving experience (just remember, no diving!) right at Grand Central Station!

STATUS: 8 pools plus 1 dumpster down, 29 to go

I feel like a new person.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed the gorgeous sunset on the Summer Solstice the other evening.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed meeting an adorably exasperated 10-year-old boy who was dogsitting for a very hyper and friendly beagle. “I don’t know how I’ll last another two and a half hours,” he sighed.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed watching bugs crawl through damp grass, and the salty smell of the evening air, and the graceful, meticulous details on an old Victorian home.

Slow down today. Go outside. Open your eyes.

I was lucky to have teachers who cared about my artistic development in high school. Instrumental music, chorus, and drama were all stressed, and important parts of of my life. I also attended summer Arts enrichment programs – such as the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, where I discovered Salsa music with the help of Jacob Edgar, and learned to paint with acrylics under the guidance of Wosene Kosrof. I also studied at the 5-week program at Berklee College of Music, which helped me decide to go to college in a city (and Boston, specifically).

Some students have mentors who will push them to learn about themselves through art, but many do not.

Will you be that mentor?

You don’t have to be an artist or musician yourself to be that someone for a young person. Encourage them to take photography or composition classes. Subsidize their lessons if you’re financially able. Buy their finished artwork. And help them to find peers.

In Vermont, I’m now the Director of the Governor’s Institute on the Arts, that seminal place in my life. We offer an intensive 2-week program covering art forms as diverse as Drawing, Writing, Music, Puppetry, Stone Carving, and many more. If you know a motivated student entering grades 10-12 in Vermont, please send them to our website for more information: http://giaofvt.org/ComeToGIA.html

Across the country, there are great arts programs. View a list from the National Conference of Governor’s Schools, and leave a comment here with links to other great programs.