A “highly successful” after-school education program for Laramie school kids, facilitated by the University of Wyoming Art Museum, may be in its final year of funding unless new funds can be found to sustain it.
For the last decade, children in grades one to three have had the opportunity to learn and develop various creative and critical thinking skills in the Art Museum’s Afterschool Enrichment Program. Each month, kids from one of Laramie’s elementary schools arrive for an array of lessons and projects for an hour after school, spaced across seven days.
“They visit the galleries and have art lessons downstairs, and unfortunately this is the last year that it will be funded,” student art teacher, Tori Pike, said. “That’s one thing that those kids absolutely love, and there’s a whole bunch of data showing how beneficial it is.”
Lessons often utilize the Art Museum’s current exhibits, such as Al Farrow’s “Divine Ammunition,” as the basis for themes to present out-of-the-ordinary education to kids. While the exhibit had the potential to be intimidating, the Art Museum handled it carefully and the kids came away with a new experience and a new way of examining their own lives.
“They would see that, and then downstairs they would make relics… and then put something special to them inside of it,” Pike said. “So they get that connection up here and down there that they wouldn’t be able to get at school. It’s amazing that the Art Museum does that.”
The program’s difficulties come from across-the-board cuts in state funding, specifically affecting availability of school district buses for transportation outside of school hours. Other school programs that involve travel, including sports, music events and speech and debate, may feel the tightening of the belt. For the art program, buses are needed to extend transportation opportunities after the school day for kids to go from their school to the Art Museum and then home.
“Across the state, anything that’s outside of the school day, bussing-wise, is not as reimbursable as it used to be at the state level,” Master Teacher at the Art Museum, Heather Bender, said. “It has some wide repercussions, and I think we’re just beginning to see where it has the deepest impact.”
The after-school program has continued for this year thanks to support from the Albany County school district and grants from the Wyoming Art Council, but this is only a temporary extension of its lifetime.
“If we don’t get the same amount of funds for next year, we’ll have to reassess and re-evaluate the program costs,” Curator of Education and Statewide Engagement, Katie Christensen, said.
The Art Museum is investigating possible sources of future funding, with the possibility of support from private donors and partnerships with corporate sponsors such as McDonald’s and McCalister’s Deli here in Laramie.
