At last week's Arts in Education Forum, Mayor Mike McGinn - better known as a bicycling enthusiast and environmental advocate - revealed that he once performed as a sailor in the chorus line of "South Pacific." Not to be outdone, Susan Enfield of Seattle Public Schools revealed that her debut as an art performer had been as a fully-costumed French fry in a school play.

Mayor Mike McGinn and Susan Enfield, Chief Academic Officer at Seattle Public Schools, opened up last week’s Arts in Education Forum with a couple of surprising admissions.

McGinn, better known as a bicycling enthusiast and environmental advocate, revealed that he once performed as a sailor in the chorus line of “South Pacific.” Not to be outdone, Enfield revealed that her debut as a performer had been as a fully-costumed French fry in a school play.

Both McGinn and Enfield used these anecdotes to illustrate how arts are, as McGinn explained, “a critical part of education.”

Read more about Mayor McGinn and Susan Enfield’s conversation with Seattle Public Schools students about arts and the role of arts education in the Seattle University Spectator.

If you missed the event, you can now catch the highlights here, on the OACA YouTube channel, or watch the entire discussion here, on Seattle Channel.