In 2008, eight year old Isaac Horning met future Arts in Education Director, Justin Ayala to help create a mural in his elementary school…
Current Arts in Education Director, Justin Ayala sitting with Isaac Horning under the mural-site at Loganville-Springfield Elementary in 2008
Students and Justin gathered beneath the finished tile mosaic in 2008
Isaac Horning in 2025 as he begins work as a Creative Art Therapist in a residential psychiatric facility in Philadelphia.
The story of Isaac Horning meeting our Cultural Alliance Arts in Education Director in 2008 highlights exactly how our Arts in Education program builds a pathway for lifelong learning and passion in the arts.
This giving Tuesday, we are talking about Arts in Education. As the Cultural Alliance prepares to face a loss of nearly $100,000 annually in funding to this program due to changes with our state arts agency, your support is more important now than ever. Make a contribution today.
“It was at Loganville-Springfield Elementary School where I fell in love with art class. My art teacher Ms. Hildebrand was a colorful and caring person who showed me how school can be a place of wonderment and expression. If I remember correctly, she was a connective force in arranging for Justin to collaborate with the school on a mosaic mural in the cafeteria. There was an assembly announcing the project and I was immediately all in. A student body was formed of interested kids who wanted to spend extra time assisting Justin in cutting, organizing, and applying tiles and I had to be on it.
I still remember the smell of the grout and the powdery coating of ceramic dust contrasted against Justin’s all black uniform. He might have been the coolest person I had ever met at that point.
It felt like I was in the presence of the kindest rockstar ever. He made me feel a part of something not just bigger than me but bigger than the school itself. Watching him organize teachers, students, and parents into one unified creative force opened my mind to new possibilities of what a school could be and what artmaking could look like.
As I worked up on the scaffolding, basking in the spectacle of this seemingly massive project, I got to ask him questions and watch how he worked. He carried himself in a way that felt so wise and yet deeply curious. Even as an awkward artsy kid I don’t remember ever feeling intimidated by his expertise and sheer coolness. It was as if I had a chance to speak to an aspirational, visionary version of my future self. Seeing Justin orchestrate this wall of art into existence broadened my idea of what was possible. The school transformed in my mind from a grey walled building of books and chairs to a place of potential. Every wall was now a canvas.
As I grew up, fond memories of this work stuck with me. I continued to participate in and pursue higher levels of art education through Dallastown School District and Creative York. Every year I did different camps, competitions, and shows.
Towards the end of high school I found myself in the art honor society and was taking AP courses in Art and Psychology. In searching for a career project focus my mom encouraged me to google jobs related to the two subjects. That’s when I found art therapy.
It was just today that I received my license as an associate professional counselor in addition to my license as a provisional art therapist. I am currently working as a Creative Arts Therapist at a residential psych facility in Philadelphia. I see the infinite ways art has yet to fully benefit the communities of Pennsylvania that need it the most. The work of someone like Justin is essential in ways that can never be quantified. And it is for that reason that he was able to make me see a place like a school in a new light.
To me, without art, education is mostly dimensionless 1’s and 0’s.Without people like Justin, schools would remain flat and colorless.
