Comstock’s reached out to Lennee Eller, interim director of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, for her advice on how artists can improve their chances of success. Here’s what she had to say.

Amal Iqbal has years of experience with struggling to understand how work plays into her identity as a Muslim-American woman, and challenging cultural expectations when necessary. This experience informed her decision to launch her own business that incorporates fashion, interior and graphic design into one shop.

Traditional museums and old-school performance centers — with silent hallways and auditoriums where photography is forbidden — are being rethought in favor of interactive educational spaces. The Capital Region boasts a number of vital, enriching educational institutions that intentionally link the arts and education communities to create welcoming spaces that are both inspiring and accessible.

In 1986, the B Street Theatre opened as a simple touring theater for children. Since then, it has grown to be one of the West Coast’s premier children’s theaters, producing 19 shows per year and serving 300,000 people annually. But the two-theater playhouse had outgrown its original space and sought options.

Randy Roberts, deputy director of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, offers her insight into the essential role of museums as community organizations.

Founded in 2000, Music to Grow On focuses on special-needs children and works in 20 school districts throughout the greater Sacramento region. Barth describes music therapy as “the use of music to reach non-musical goals,” which can include everything from communication and motor skills to memory and academics.

The Capital Dance Project recently announced a partnership with the Sacramento Kings and the Kings Foundation to produce their inaugural Sensory-Friendly Dance Performance on Friday, Aug. 25 at Crest Theatre.

Bessie Barth, director of Music to Grown On, offers her insight into the role of music therapy.

Can Sacramento continue to invest in the arts when public budgets remain tight and the economy continues to underperform? Wrong question. Rather, we need to ask ourselves whether we can afford not to invest in the arts. We need to change the debate away from a competition for dollars and toward building an understanding of the many avenues by which a vibrant arts scene complements and promotes robust economic growth in our region.

Art in the workplace is more than cosmetic; it can actually improve employee attitudes, performance, and even the company’s bottom line. This feels almost blasphemous. By definition, we think of “art” and “profit” as two distinct and even clashing concepts, with the unspoken assumption that chasing profits will corrupt art, and that art drags down profits. Conventional wisdom says “art for art’s sake”: Art is not a means to an end, art is the end.