Grant Supports New 'Arts Learning' Program from USU's Art Museum

A new program, designed and coordinated by Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art — NEHMA— will soon hit the road thanks to support from a grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. The $30,000 grant will assist with the purchase of a vehicle — perhaps a truck or van — to be outfitted with a variety of art supplies and teaching objects. The program, “Mobilizing Arts Access,” is intended to provide high quality arts learning experiences to schools, alternative learning groups and the communities of Cache County and northern Utah, according to museum director Katie Lee Koven.

“As the only art museum in this region of northern Utah, we are thrilled to have received support from the Windgate Charitable Foundation to kickstart our new program, Lee Koven said. “The Mobilizing Arts Access program will expand our educational offerings while building meaningful relationships with schools and communities.”

This is the first time the Arkansas-based foundation has provided support to a Utah organization.

The vehicle will ultimately provide more than 100 hands-on education arts experiences and visits during the school year to both grade level and special needs classes and alternative learning groups in Cache Valley, Lee Koven said. The museum’s education staff will lead activities and train teaching artists to introduce art projects and objects to students and community members that relate to exhibits on view in the museum. The program seeks to build relationships and reinforce NEHMA’s role as an extension of the classroom. It also provides a connection to resources offered at USU and the museum.

Since schools and other organizations are often unable to provide high levels of art instruction due to funding issues, NEHMA’s mobile art vehicle will bring museum-based arts learning directly to classrooms for arts learning experiences. Select artworks from the museum collection will be used as “teaching objects,” with the activities and learning experiences relating to art or exhibitions on view at the museum.

“Part of what makes the Mobile Arts Access program exciting is bringing depth to activities that currently take place at the museum,” Lee Koven said.

A goal is to incorporate arts-based learning as a value in the lives of students, teachers and community members. The efforts will sustain and enhance future arts education programming through the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and the Arts Access Initiative at USU, Lee Koven said.

Future plans include making the mobile art vehicle available for community and university events.

For information on the project, contact Lee Koven at the museum, (435) 797-0164, katie.lee.koven@usu.edu.

Related link:

USU’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art

Source: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art

Contact: Katie Lee Koven, NEHMA director, (435) 797-0164, katie.lee.koven