OPEN ART/School Outreach 2008

OPEN ART: Changing Minds

The Great River Arts Institute offers OPEN ART after-school programs throughout the school year to foster literacy through art-based, multi-disciplinary activities. We identify regional artists and educators who create innovative, hands-on art projects while interweaving elements of science, social studies, environmental studies and language arts.

After a successful pilot program in Vermont, OPEN ART expanded to elementary schools in New Hampshire in 2006-2008. The program is now offered to 3rd through 5th grade students in eleven townships in Vermont and New Hampshire.

More than 200 students will benefit from OPEN ART over the coming school year.

Participating Schools

Vermont

Bellows Falls Central
Saxtons River Elementary
Westminster Center
Westminster West
Grafton Elementary

New Hampshire

Walpole Elementary
North Walpole Elementary
Charlestown Primary
Sarah Porter Elementary
Alstead Primary
Acworth Primary

OPEN ART: Mission

To enhance literacy skills and expand experiences in science and social studies through the arts.

OPEN ART: Goals

1. To inspire students with projects that require them to make meaningful connections between their own lives and what they are learning.

2. To provide students an opportunity to participate in creative activities that also address state education standards.

3. To provide an opportunity for students to develop relationships with caring adults from their communities.

4. To provide support for public school teachers focused on integrating the arts into the curriculum.

OPEN ART: Projects

Collage Books
The World Around Us (in Photographs and Words)
Nature Journaling
House Stories (Sculpture and Writing) Puppet Theater
Mask Making and Storytelling

OPEN ART: Funders

• Bellows Falls Rotary Club
• The A.D. Henderson Foundation
• The Fall Mountain Educational Endowment
• The Henry L. and Patricia J. Nielsen Foundation of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
• The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
• The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
• The Savings Bank of Walpole
• The Turrell Fund

Great River Arts is proud to be the recipient of a challenge grant from the A.D. Henderson Foundation to continue the OPEN ART program in the 2007-08 school year. The grant challenges us to raises $21,000 in order to receive an additional $6,000. Please consider supporting this program with a donation of $50. On-line donations can be made through our "sponsorship" page.

GREAT RIVER ARTS IN THE SCHOOLS

In addition to our OPEN ART programs, Great River Arts invests in the regional Vermont and New Hampshire schools by providing opportunities to supplement their arts and creative writing programs through collaborative in-school offerings. The in-school component differentiates Great River Arts from other local arts organizations because we collaborate with the teachers to design the program; secure the funding and administer the projects with the help of dynamic faculty and volunteers. Over the past seven years, these diverse in-school programs have involved more than 1,500 students in wide ranging activities from poetry and mask-making, to summer art camp, to portfolio preparation for the serious high school art student.

For more information on our programs, please visit Great River Arts or contact our Education Director Jackie Fehrenbach at 803-463-3330.