GRANT REPORT - MONO ARTS COUNCIL
Mono Arts Council, or MAC, provides visual and performing arts to the youth of the Eastern Sierra, in school settings, after school programs and with summer camps. School programs provided by MAC are the only formal visual arts instruction that many of the students in the Eastern Sierra receive during the school year. While many classroom teachers will occasionally integrate art into their classrooms, there are still many who are not comfortable with this opportunity. With 55% of the students in the two school districts of the Eastern Sierra being economically disadvantaged, it is very important that art programs are provided in the classroom during the school day. MAC ensures that all students have access to this vital part of their education by providing arts in the classroom with programs such as “Create With the Greats.”
“Create With the Greats” provides MAC Teaching Artists that visit every Kindergarten through 8th grade classroom in Mono County with six lessons to teach the class about great artists such as Keith Haring, Georgia O’Keeffe and Josef Frank. Each artist lesson is built on the previous lesson. Art styles and techniques are discussed so that students can apply their newfound knowledge to each new lesson. For many students, this is their favorite part of school! While MAC Teaching Artists only see the students five to six times per year, the impression the class makes on the students prompts them to talk about it years later. MAC hopes to eventually grow the program to visit school classrooms every month that school is in session.
We had the pleasure of talking with MAC Executive Director, Kristin Reese to learn more about how the MMCF Organizational Grant they received impacted the community.
What did you get from the grant?
We were awarded $3325 in the 2024 Spring/Summer Cycle and $7325 in the 2024 Fall/Winter grant cycle to support our Create With the Greats Program.
How did this grant improve the opportunities for the youth of Mono County?
There are currently no visual art teachers in any Mono County elementary school. Our Create With the Greats program provides in-school arts instruction to every K-8 classroom, creating access to the arts for every single student in Mono County. With support from MMCF, Mono Arts Council is able to not only employ skilled Teaching Artists, but also create curriculum that excites the students to create their own works of art with inspiration from both living and deceased artists such as Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, Fernando Botero, and Chiura Obata, and many more. Because of the Create With the Greats program, students have art during the school day, five to six times per school year, and can have a chance to break free with creativity and expand their minds for the rest of their learning.
Can you tell us about the youth population that this program serves?
We provide this program to every single student that attends a school in Mono County from Kindergarten through Eighth grade. This also includes students who are currently homeschooled as well as students who attend Crowley Christian School. We believe that every child in Mono County (and the world) deserves access to the arts.
In the public school system in Mono County, many students are on the free or reduced lunch program, and in some cases, our Create With the Greats Program may be one of their only exposures to art they have.
All of these communities are rural and isolated and, during the winter months, it becomes difficult and sometimes impossible to travel to and from these communities. It is vital that we are able to offer these programs during the school day so that there aren’t additional barriers for families to access this program.
How did this grant help your programs and teachers better engage the students?
With the grant funding from MMCF, we were able to research and offer new and exciting artist lessons for the students this year. This included the lessons for Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, a Nigerian Artist who engaged with us through our social media when we shared that we were teaching students about her art. These new artist lessons were exciting for the students, not only because some of the artists were living and they could see what art they were currently producing, but also because we introduced new, “more grown-up” art supplies for the students to work with. We are also able to hire new staff that have energy and enthusiasm for the program, and have been excited to share that enthusiasm with the students. This enabled us to be able to offer lessons taught in Spanish to a couple of the dual-immersion classrooms at Mammoth Elementary School.
Did this grant improve the lives of the students and add to their educational experience with an opportunity they might not otherwise have?
Based on the feedback we have received, the students look forward to the days when our Teaching Artists visit the classrooms. Some students even say it is their favorite part of school. Our Create With the Greats program provides the students exposure to artists from all over the world, many of whom they would not learn about without this program. Artists who inspire them to create in nature, such as Chiura Obata. This program has boosted their self-confidence and their ability to collaborate with each other. At the start of the school year they could barely say a few words about art in general, let alone their own work. By the end of the school year, the students can talk about the art they learned about, about color, about different forms of art, and they can even comfortably share their own work. We are grateful for opportunities to allow students to express themselves creatively, not only if they have creative impulses, but also if they need to express feelings and emotions they have no other way to express constructively.
Did the grant funds have the effect you were hoping for?
Yes, we were able to expand the program into Mammoth Middle School this spring, expand our curriculum, purchase more quality art supplies, and offer more lessons to all schools.
Is there anything that you would like to convey to MMCF donors?
We appreciate your support of MMCF so that they are able to support programs such as ours. Arts and Culture are an important part of any community and we, at Mono Arts Council, hope to continue providing opportunities to all residents of Mono County.
