Local Walmart Manager Jennifer Hudson present a $1,000 check to BPAC at Cleveland Headstart Center Two. CL2 received 100 discounted copies of The Snowy Day through BPAC’s Read It, See It, Hear It, Be It program.
The Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi (CFNM), the Woodward Hines Education Foundation’s fund, Teach for America’s Pitch for a Purpose, and the local Cleveland Walmart have all awarded the Bologna Performing Arts Center’s arts education office programming grants for the upcoming summer and school year to support its ongoing arts education initiatives.
Grant funds from CFNM and the Woodward Hines Education Foundation will be used to provide partial scholarships to students ages 12-18 to attend CORE Arts camp, a two-week residential program held on campus at Delta State University from June 7-20. It allows students to take courses from noted performing and visual arts professionals while also getting a taste of college life. Approximately 30 percent of all students who attend CORE Arts at the Janice Wyatt Mississippi Summer Arts Institute (MSAI) do so on financial scholarship. For many students, CORE Arts serves as their first prolonged experience with college life, so the Bologna Performing Arts Center (BPAC) works with DSU Admissions to provide campers with campus tours during their stay.
Registration for MSAI camps opened in February and scholarship applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all funds are exhausted. If students are interested in applying for financial aid, the scholarship form can be found online at bolognapac.com/education, or by calling the arts education office at 662-846-4844.
Other grant funds will be used to support BPAC’s Read It, See It, Hear It, Be It program, an arts education and book distribution program spearheaded by the arts education office in partnership with the Delta Arts Alliance and GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi. BPAC has awarded more than 2,750 reduced-priced books to students in nearly 15 Mississippi and Arkansas Delta counties in the 2019-20 school year and is on track to award another 250 titles by the end of March—for a total of 3,000 books distributed to K-12 students. BPAC, Delta Arts Alliance, and GRAMMY Museum Mississippi have likewise provided free arts education workshops to more than 300 Bolivar, Washington, and Sunflower county students during the 19-20 Read It, See It, Hear It, Be It program and will be able to continue this work in the 2020-21 school year with the additional funding.
Local support from Food Fix and St. Luke Methodist Church in Cleveland helped BPAC distribute nearly 200 books to students at Nailor Elementary and Parks Elementary. If local businesses are interested in sponsoring a class’s books for $1 per copy, contact the arts education office.
For more information on the Read It, See It, Hear It, Be It program, MSAI camps, and scholarship availability, contact the arts education office at 662-846-4844.
Nailor Elementary students pose with their books from the Read It, See It, Hear It, Be It program, sponsored locally by Food Fix.
