SUU and USF Awarded Grant to Serve Iron County Schools

Published: February 20, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Southern Utah University and the Utah Shakespearean Festival were recently awarded a $40,000 grant to be dispersed over two years from the Dana Foundation.

The grant will be used to set up the ArtsBridge program, which provides arts and arts education training for SUU College of Performing and Visual Arts students who plan to teach art, dance, drama, music and digital arts in Iron County schools.

The Dana Foundation grant will provide scholarships to these SUU students. Applications are now being accepted for potential 2008-09 SUU ArtsBridge students.

According to Bahr, "I'm thrilled that this national program will be established at SUU to benefit the local community. ArtsBridge will expand the work SUU and the Festival are doing in local schools, creating new opportunities for local teachers, students and SUU teaching artists."

Under this new program, SUU students will learn about teaching methods and lesson plan preparation specifically for arts education. SUU’s ArtsBridge Students will work with SUU Elementary Arts Education Endowed Chair Carrie Trenholm and Utah Shakespearean Festival Education Director Michael Bahr.

States Dean of SUU’s College of Performing and Visual Arts William Byrnes, “This grant will make a huge impact when it comes to helping our College of Performing and Visual Arts students create projects for Iron County schools that integrate the arts with many different subjects such as history, math, science and literature."

In short, AtrsBridge helps students learn how to teach younger students about the arts by using methods that engage more familiar elements within the young students’ lives.

This grant comes to the University thanks to the hard work of Alison Vandenberg of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a second year graduate student in Southern Utah University’s Master of Fine Arts in Arts Administration program. Vandenberg worked in collaboration with Michael Bahr to develop the grant proposal.

Students interested in the ArtsBridge program are invited to attend one of two informational sessions February 25 or February 26 at 4 p.m. in Southern Utah University’s General Classroom Building, room 106.

ArtsBridge applications are available at the Festival Education Office or from any College of Performing and Visual Arts faculty member. Applications are due to the Utah Shakespearean Festival by March 14 at 5 p.m. For more information please contact Alison Vandenberg at 865-8333 or via email at usfeducation@bard.org.

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