Julie Steiger (left), Bella Hartmann and Eduardo Santiago (right).
Julie Steiger (left), Bella Hartmann and Eduardo Santiago (right).

The popular and longstanding Idyllwild Community Center Speaker Series has a new producing partner. The Idyllwild Arts Academy will work with ICC to present this year’s series, focusing on the career paths and goals of Idyllwild Arts seniors.

Eduardo Santiago, Idyllwild author and founder of the summer Idyllwild Author Series, is the academy’s Art in Society chair.

As part of the school’s mission of bringing the school and town closer together, Santiago plans to introduce to the community IA seniors studying in a variety of art disciplines. “I find the idea of bringing young people at the beginning of their careers to the attention of the community very exciting,” said Santiago. “The goals of IA and ICC are perfectly aligned in that IA seeks more visibility in the community while ICC seeks to facilitate and provide more unique activities that bring the community together.”

Julie Steiger, clinical therapist, and Rick Barker, local author, will assist Santiago in mounting the series scheduled to premiere at 6 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 13, at Silver Pines Lodge. Said Steiger, “We want to get the community involved with what is going on at Idyllwild Arts.”

The first presenter is senior music student Bella Hartmann. Hartmann plays jazz double bass and is also a dean’s list and honor-roll student. “I’ll be talking about what coming through such a music and arts-intensive environment has done for me, and about how and why I love music,” said Hartmann. She said she plans to cap her talk by performing with a small jazz ensemble of IA colleagues.

IA’s Art in Society program is designed to foster student goals of using their art and careers to make positive contributions to society.

“Part of the Art in Society program is coaching students in how to present themselves as artists,” said Santiago. “There’s no point in gathering experience if you don’t know how to present it to audiences.”

A wine and cheese reception begins at 5:30 p.m. prior to Hartmann’s presentation. Both the reception and presentation are open to all and free to the public.