Art Changes Us
Jun 03, 2021
Carol Damonte and Katie Povejsil
Art Changes Us
Our June 3 presentation will feature Carol Damonte, the founder of Art Changes Us, a program for high school youth in the greater Mountain View-Los Altos area to discover their purpose through art. Art Changes Us (artchangesus.org) provides high school youth from underrepresented parts of our community with a safe, supportive space to explore the change-making power of connection, creativity and social entrepreneurship to prepare for life as adults. This non-faith-based program is open to ALL and is sponsored by Los Altos United Methodist Church as a community service.
CAROL DAMONTEFounder and Managing Creative Director of Art Changes Us
Carol Damonte combines her passion for music and art with deep experience in youth development. For the past 38 years, Carol has been the Director of Youth Music at the Los Altos United Methodist Church (LAUMC), touching the lives of thousands of teens. Combining vocal performance and performing arts, she and her husband, Dirk Damonte, composed and produced 17 original musicals that have been performed all over the world. In 2018, her lifelong love of photography and visual arts led her to become a Fellow with the ChangeMaker Initiative and create the founding vision for Art Changes Us.
Carol has a BA in Piano Pedagogy/Performance from the University of Puget Sound.
KATIE POVEJSILActing Executive Director of Art Changes Us
Beginning as an engineer, Katie found her way into the burgeoning personal computer business at Apple in 1983. After 10 years at Apple, primarily involved in the education business, she switched to independent consulting for technology and media companies such as HP, Adobe, Cisco and PBS as well as many smaller start-ups. In 2008, she returned to corporate life as head of marketing at Turnitin and then at PresenceLearning, both rapidly growing ed-tech firms. She retired in 2018 and currently consults pro bono with social enterprises and travels with her husband, Bill Scull.
Katie has a BS in engineering from Cornell University and a MS in Engineering from Stanford University.