Encouraging art in education

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - A few more artists may swing through Alaska schools next year as part of the Artists in School program. Thanks to funding from the Rasmuson Foundation, the amount schools have to pay in order to host visiting artists will be substantially lowered for the 2005-06 school year.

AIS will also be able to increase the amount paid to individual artists, which they hope will help in continuing to attract quality professionals. AIS allows students to work with professional artists through full-time residency in their schools for a minimum of two weeks.

The Alaska State Council on the Arts administers the program, which holds that arts are vital to a complete education by stimulating and encouraging language, broadening horizons and teaching children that problems usually have more than one solution.

"The whole program is growing by leaps and bounds," said AIS program director Susan Olson. "We had 25 residencies last year and we are up to 40 this year."

One of the goals of lowering fees to schools is to attract even more schools to the program that were previously unable to afford the residency costs.

Those interested in bringing artists to their local schools may download applications and guidelines at www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca. Online grant applications are available at http://alaska.cgweb.org. For more information, contact Program Director Susan Olson at (907) 269-6682.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.