Palo Alto High School’s Media Arts Center relaunched its MAC Speaker Series fundraising event on April 23 after a seven-year hiatus, featuring Stanford art history professor Alexander Nemerov as its first speaker. Paly senior and California State Journalist of the Year Ava Knapp participated as a moderator, leading a discussion before opening it up to the audience. 

Nemerov said the opportunity was important for him to help many in the audience find themselves, especially due to the demographic in attendance.

“Not only did my daughters go here, but I think it’s a very important place of soul creation here in town,” Nemerov said. “People are discovering who they are, who they might be, and it’s meaningful for me to speak to those people.”

Sophomore and event attendee Naia Tormala said the event was insightful.

“I took away that art isn’t just the tangible thing itself, but it can provoke so much more and evoke such deep emotions, feelings and thoughts,” Tormala said. “I definitely think that his class is less about art itself and more just about the philosophical ideas that accompany it.”

Sophomore and event emcee Kyle Chen said the event brought newfound respect to art. 

“A lot of people just don’t respect art and culture as much,” Chen said. “So having C Magazine organize an event like this, it’s really helpful for the whole community.”

MAC Boosters president Meredith Ackley said she wanted to use the event to grow the MAC community.

“I thought it was a great way to bring in community,” Ackley said. “Professor Nemerov has a great following of his Continuing Education program at Stanford, and it was really nice to be able to see a snapshot for people (who) want to see or take his class.”

MAC Boosters board member Esther Yoo said the event brought more than just fundraising.

“It went well, both practically as well as philosophically,” Yoo said. “The fundraising and all of that is great, but what I really wanted was Professor Nemerov to convey his message to our community.”

Yoo also said she wants to continue keeping students involved in future events.

“(Students) are so capable of so much, (so) I want to give students an opportunity to put on a speaker series to be involved,” Yoo said.

Nemerov said he wanted to remind students of their worth outside of material accomplishments.

“They’re more than their success or failure in college admissions, more than what social media defines as their popularity or lack thereof, that they’re more than the news cycle, (and) that none of those things actually touches the person that they are,” Nemerov said.