O'Malley: Music is 'all that keeps us here' [View all]

WASHINGTON, Iowa – Presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley told the crowd that filled an art gallery Friday that he looked forward to art and music classes daily as an elementary school student.

"Look, I don't think I would have graduated from either grade school or high school were it not for music and art," he said.

The former Democratic governor of Maryland said art and music classes give kids creativity and collaboration skills that are necessary for success later in life. As mayor of Baltimore, he supported a fundraising project between the city and nonprofits that allowed two local art museums to drop their admissions fees, he said.

The remarks were an answer to a question from Kathleen Almelien, an artist whose watercolor painting of a barn hung in the gallery O'Malley visited on Washington's square, Art Domestique. Almelien, 67, told O'Malley she's concerned that the growing movement for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, or STEM, is crowding out support for art and music classes.

"I toured a lot of schools, especially as mayor," said O'Malley, who plays guitar and fronts an Irish-rock band called O'Malley's March. "Because the kids knew that I played an instrument, I'd have so many of them say, 'Hey mayor, I play the clarinet. Hey mayor, I play the violin.' And I'd always say, 'Keep playing music. It's all that keeps us here.'"

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