Recently, I had the good fortune of being invited to the National Arts Policy Roundtable, hosted by the country’s leading arts advocacy group, Americans for the Arts. The event is an intimate two-day think tank led by the founder of the Sundance Institute, Robert Redford (he said call him Bob, but I just called him Mr. Redford), and Bob Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts.

The room was full of arts policy makers including Abel Lopez, Keri Putnam and Marian Godfrey along with artists like musician Ben Folds, actress Alicia Witt and Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist, Robert Gupta. Listening to Robert Redford talk about his passion for the arts and his lifelong effort to create the Sundance Institute and protect thousands of acres in Cottonwood Canyon was worth the trip. But the real learning came from the level of exchange between the participants. David Grant, former head of the Geraldine Dodge Foundation, was a moderator extraordinaire and herded the cats with his usual grace and good humor.

“What can the arts bring to healing?” was the lead topic and I was fortunate to serve on a panel led by Sheila Casey, with Floyd Green of Aetna and Nabel Abboud Ashkar who came all the way from Tel Aviv, where he leads The Polyphony Foundation.

Other luminaries included the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General George Casey Jr. and the acting Surgeon General, RADM Boris Lushniak, MD, MPH. I was also fortunate to meet the 2013 winners of the Academy Award for Documentary Short, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. They screened their winning film, Inocente, confirming that art can truly save a life.

Fellow Miamian, Paul Lehr, was in attendance and arranged for three of Young Arts U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts to come out for the weekend, sit in on the discussions and ply their craft for the group.

I was particularly taken by Young Arts cellist Peter Eom, both for this playing and his thoughtful discourse on why the classics matter in today’s society. As I told the group, it feels funny to have Peter as a mentor when he is almost four decades younger than me, at the ripe old age of 19. Here is a brief camera phone clip of him, starting off our day on Saturday.

Friday evening, Bob and Billy Redford invited us to their home for dinner and an impromptu jam session sprung up between Robert Gupta and singer/songwriter Darden Smith. Here is another brief clip courtesy of Peter’s camera phone!

The roundtable never fails to inspire the attendees to continue to make art general throughout our country. Much thanks to Americans for the Arts for continuing to convene this group of thoughtful artists and policymakers.

AFTA CEO Bob Lynch and musician BenFolds in Sundance.