Directors Updates

April 2012 Director’s Report

ART-TELL has just finished. we are grateful for everyone who joined us for this celebration.

The youth and adult winners are all listed. All those who entered the contest were winners, though. Taking the challenge and sharing their thoughts and talents is not only a gift to the community but to themselves.

An overview of the past four months:

1. The Puppetry Open House went well; Over 250 people attended the evening pupets shows by Freddie the Stringman Spencer. Thanks to Brigham City Olympic Legacy funds for sponsoring the puppet show there and for 350 or so youht at Mountatin View School.

2. Music in the City: has an awesoem series this year- we now also have a few more concerts lined up to enlilghten the community. Watch for Friday night concerts May 18th and 25.

3. We had the honor of helping on the Brigham City Main Street flyway and it is just about up and flying. The panels are ready to hang and will be up shortly.

4. Our summer camps are now being finalized. See the summer program page of our website.

5. We are looking forward to more fantastic puppetry - next up is Puppets in the Park, but even more is planned.

MORE ABOUT THE FINE ARTS CENTER:

Our Goal has been to offer a variety of arts inspiring activities for a variety of age levels. . . youth Choir, theatre schools for every age group, drawing and other visual arts classes, arts classes for adults, are a big part of this. Classes are year round, with summer camps as well as afterschool classes september through May. New classes are often started September, November, January and March for 6 to 14 week series. Equally important has been the puppetry museum and other ongoing community activities:
PUPPETRY: If you are looking for more fun things to do, especially family oriented, affordable things, remember Puppet Museum day s on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month 2 to 5 pm. As of this writing, we are finishing a major Museum upgrade and have a few more exhibits and interactive areas completed with a few more to go. BUT . . we are still open with a lot of great puppets to see and puppet activities to participate in. We are grateful to the Utah Division of Arts and Museums for helping us with the upgrades- more info and pictures coming soon. The museum is also open to visitors and community groups by appointment. Classroom and field trip workshops are also available.

PUPPET STORY TIME: Offered during the school year on the 2nd Friday of the Month from 9:30 to 10:30 am. This is geared to 3-5 year olds accompanied by an adult and includes a small craft activity. This puppet time includes puppets, games, pre-reading activities, and music. There is a suggested donation of $1 per child doing craft for this activitiy.

OPEN MIKE NIGHT is still once a month. This is often the second Saturday of the month, but occasionally has had to be backed up to third Saturday. We are now often offering a pre-Open Mic concert at 6 pm. Check the Open Mike Night page for details. Persons interested in performing may do so when the doors open at 7 pm. We have some great jazz piano and guitar regulars and all performers can have their performance burned on a CD. Audience only members are encouraged to donate $2 and performers are free. Light refreshments offered.

Music in the City - monthly Friday night series of fantastic talent October through April (we are skipping December this year). See this link under events for more details.

SPONSORS AND DREAMS:

A PHILOSOPHY: Along with serving the community with arts activities is an underlining goal to promote and develop art appreciation, respect for others, leadership skills in students who participate and an excitement for creativity and learning. We hope that every child and adult who passes through our doors comes away with a renewed sense of respect, enthusiasm, and desire to learn more and serve others.

FUNDING: Thanks to some regular supporters and donors, we have done well over the past 10 years. We are your Art Center and in these times when corporate support is down and more families are dealing with job change and loss, we welcome individuals and groups who would help sponsor additional programs and scholarships. We have kept class fees to a bare minimum and offered more scholarships this past year. Anyone or group wanting to help sponsor one of the following activities is warmly welcomed: We would gladly acknowledge and advertise donors for subsidizing the following activities: (AND will also be recognized on our next Annual ART-TELL designer Poster. )

1. Puppetry/ literacy workshops in schools: We have averaged 14 puppet making workshops for third and fourth graders a school year. These have been funded by volunteer help and parent donations. Now that schools are no longer to even ask or suggest a donation for the project from the parents, we are looking for an additional $500 to $600 to cover supplies and back up office coverage to keep this going. Would you consider a donation of $40 to help keep this project going in a class Room?

2. Community Art days: $150 each event to offer free (or $1per person) art craft days (2-3 hours each), open to all interested youth and families with opportunity to walk in and do special art projects. ( ie Human Right day, President's Day, Summer soltice, Fall and Halloween specials.)

3. Puppet shows: guest performers or in-house formal shows on Friday afternoons. $100 - $200 per show.

4. Enviromental show: We have a formal 45 minute puppet show and activity promoting an anti-litter, "leave no trace" presentation ( with great reviews). It costs us a minimum of $100 to present this, but most schools and community programs can't afford more than $50. ( Donations of $50 to $100 a show would make it possible for us to share this)

5. Youth Gift Making Day: (second weekend in December) $100 to help cover supplies and organizational planning.

6. Scholarships: Additional donations to help provide scholarships to student unable to afford class fees are also appreciated.

Donations not earmarked for any of the items above, would be divided among the above programs to help us do the most for the community.

We are a federally recognized 501C(3) nonprofit organization and welcome your tax deductible donations!
Please click HERE to make a donation!

BIG THANK-YOUS:

There are a lot of people to thank for making our programs possible. We especially want to thank the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation, Russell Family for their help again this year. They have made so much of our youth programming possible and have given us the ability to offer scholarships so that no child has to feel left out. We are grateful to the Utah Divsion of Arts and Museums for their support of our museum upgrades and some of our art Project funding. As mentioned above , we have the Brigham City Olympic Legacy fund for being able to bring in a fun and really inspiring puppet Show. We also thank Box Elder County Commissioners and the Tourism Advisory Board and a fantastic group of dedicated instructors who put in more than 110% as they work to make this a great community and a great community program. This past year Nick Velis and Mac Edwards brought us a summer production of 12 Angry Jurors that served as a fund rasier for us and brought in over $1000 to help with our youth theater programs. Thank-you, too, to everyone who has helped donate supplies or volunteered their services. Every big or little bit helps! If you want to really help, have a say in what kind of Art experiences we offer, and make a difference here in the community, please consider applying for a space on our Fine Arts Board. We meet the 3rd Thursday evening of each month. Call the Fine Arts Center office for more information (435-723-0740) .

Yours Sincerely,
Susan Neidert
Director

We are a grassroots 501 c (3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and providing fine arts opportunities for youth and families in the community.

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