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Community Outreach
The Arts Center's Community Outreach Program serves the overlooked segments of our population: low-income children, seniors, the learning disabled and the mentally ill. The program offers them a chance to color their lives, witness and express beauty and step beyond the limits of their situation. In 2002 our founding president, Linda Marston-Reid, began a program of twice monthly art lessons at the Orange County Nursing Home (OCNH). The residents were unable to leave their facility and had few activities to occupy their time. In 2003 we received $12,500 in funding from three foundations, the AKC Foundation, Bama Works Fund, and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Community Foundation, to expand our community outreach activities. We used part of the funds to hire a part-time Community Outreach Coordinator, Anna Marie Dowen, to head up and expand the program. At a rate of $12 per hour, she does all the administrative work involved in organizing the activities. She has concentrated, with the help of several other artists, on bringing hands-on art instruction to the greatest possible number of underserved individuals in our community. The artists are paid $25 per hour for their teaching time. The outreach activities include art lessons in a variety of media including drawing, painting, clay, felting and sculpture, musical performance and demonstration, as well as field trips to our gallery and lectures. Since the program's inception, Ms. Dowen has developed partnerships with many other local organizations. To date, over 5,000 children, seniors, and mentally ill and learning disabled individuals have experienced their creativity through contact with artists sent by our outreach programs. Groups served include: Locust Grove Elementary, Special Education Bridges The Assisted Living of Orange County Nursing Home and Home for Adults Headstart Early Learning Center Visions Club House Gordon House Bellevue Senior Apartments President Madison Inn Boys and Girls Club of Orange Meadow Run Senior Apartments Orange County Office on Youth Ms. Dowen has also worked to create partnerships with the African-American community in Orange through jointly sponsored activities. In past years, we have worked with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Hampton University Museum and the Orange County African American Historical Society to produce exhibitions of African American art and history. In 2005, we exhibited "Ancestral Visions - Folk Art by Darrell Rose" and a collection of annotated historic photos titled "Brown vs. The Board of Education, The Orange County Experience." Grant Support for Outreach Bama Works Foundation Charlottesville Area Community Foundation J & E Berkley Foundation Elis Olsson Memorial Foundation Second Bank and Trust Verizon Wachovia Foundation |
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