Find Your Light Foundation

For decades, Wynton Marsalis has been one of the arts’ most influential advocates for education — championing the idea that music and creativity are essential parts of a young person’s development, not optional ones.

Through his work with Jazz at Lincoln Center, he has helped bring jazz education to students around the world, creating opportunities for young people to experience the discipline, confidence, collaboration, and self-expression that arts education makes possible.

At Find Your Light Foundation, we’re proud to share a relationship rooted in that same belief: that access to the arts can transform lives and expand what students believe is possible for themselves.

Because arts education doesn’t just create performers. It helps create curious minds, confident voices, and future leaders.

In this conversation, and reflect on the 2025 Find Your Light Foundation Benefit Gala and the shared belief at the heart of the evening: that every young person deserves access to an arts education.

We’re grateful to the artists, educators, advocates, and supporters who continue to help expand access to creative opportunities for students everywhere.

Behind every young artist who finds their voice is someone who helped them believe it mattered. Creative mentorship can change the trajectory of a student’s life — especially in the arts.

When students have the opportunity to learn from working artists, they gain more than technical skills. They gain confidence. Representation. Encouragement. A vision of what’s possible for their future.

Programs like , that connect young people with professional broadway performers don’t just create stronger artists — they create stronger communicators, collaborators, and leaders.

Thank you Broadway for Arts Education, for all you do!

Some of our most challenging — and most meaningful — work lies in reaching those who still underestimate the value of arts education. Helping illuminate its profound impact not only on academic achievement, but on human development, confidence, empathy, and the ability to imagine new possibilities is what it is all about!

Josh Groban

🎸When students are given the opportunity to create, they begin to blossom in ways they never imagined. Through the arts, they discover not only their voice, but their place in the bigger picture — learning how their ideas, perspectives, and creativity can shape the world around them.

Arts education doesn’t just teach students how to make something. It teaches them how to see, connect, and believe in their ability to make an impact.

We are proud to support programs like who pave the way!

What makes so powerful is the mentorship at its core: the “Broadway Buddies,” professional teaching artists who guide, challenge, and champion these students as they explore who they are and what they’re capable of becoming.

Through the arts, young people build skills that last far beyond the stage; critical thinking, confidence, leadership, and the boldness to express themselves fully.

These are life tools, and they’re developed through creativity, collaboration, and the belief that their voices matter.

Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross remind us in that the arts are part of our biology; shaping how we think, learn, regulate emotions, and connect with others. Creative experiences engage the whole brain, helping young people build resilience and a stronger sense of self.

and bring that truth to life through the shared act of singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the 2025 FYLF Benefit Concert for Arts Education.

At Find Your Light, we work to ensure every child has access to these opportunities. Because when young people make art, they’re not just expressing themselves, they’re developing the cognitive and emotional tools that help them thrive.

Naming a foundation? Easy. Naming it well… that’s another story!

shares the origin of Find Your Light Foundation with on

The mission has always been the same: ensuring every young person has access to a quality arts education.

Congrats to all of the FYLF Grantees: 257 arts organizations impacting 600,000 students in 2026!