Friday, March 16, 2012

Event to support high school art education

 Give for Greatness will be having one of its 2012 signature fund-raising events, titled Students for the Arts, on March 20.
 The event will be taking place from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall to promote youth arts education programs around the city.
 Event Coordinator Emily Accetta said she feels the event will be helpful to high school students.
 “In addition to giving high schools students, many of which attend schools that do not have art programs,” she said, “the opportunity to personally connect with professional artists in the area, we also want the festival to feature some of Western New York's notable arts and cultural organizations that have already established programs available to teen artists.”
 She also said the event will be featuring nine organizations in the Buffalo area that will give 10-minute performances or presentations at the festival. Some of the organizations involved are Shea’s Performing Arts Center, Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and Sugar City.
 Over the past couple weeks, more than a dozen high school students have been meeting up with six master mentors such as artists, actors and photographers. This apprenticeship program is being done for the first time in the program's history.
 According to www.giveforgreatness.org, the organization raised $90,000 in 2011. This money went to funding area cultural organizations to try and help the arts in the area.
By Richard Cumpston and Michael Tellier