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Museum gets $15K grant for ARTS

 

The Community Foundation Sonoma County has awarded Sonoma Valley Museum of Art a $15,000 grant to help support the museum's educational program, Art Rewards The Student (ARTS).

The program serves more than 850 Sonoma Valley fourth- and fifth-graders with arts education projects that connect with California Content Standards in visual arts, language and sciences.

Through the ARTS program, the museum sends art instructors to more than 25 classrooms and offers small group museum sessions that include guided discussions in the exhibition galleries and hands-on projects in the museum's new art studio.

The program's themes in 2010-11 mirrored those of the exhibition "Eco Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion" with a focus on textile arts, natural dyeing techniques and environmental sustainability.

In the past year, the museum has increased instruction time and deepened the ARTS experience for participating students. The approach, with longer sessions, increased instructional time and critical thinking activity in the galleries, is designed to place greater emphasis on students' creative expression and artistic perception, as advocated by the California Content Standards and the Visual and Performing Arts Framework.

"This is wonderful," said Margie Maynard, director of education and public programs at the museum, "This year's program reflected an important stage of growth and development. We are so pleased that the Community Foundation believes in the work of the museum and in supporting high quality arts programming for children here in the Valley."

The museum receives additional funding for ARTS from Sonoma Plein Air Foundation and from museum donors and friends. Educational and public programs are also supported by the Calvin R. Vander Woude Lively Arts Series.

The museum is located at 551 Broadway.

For additional information and registration, call 939-7862 or visit www.svma.org.