ArtsForward Patrons Program
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, February 20, 2018
By Jessica Morton
Neepawa Banner & Press
Have you ever wanted to help out the community but didn’t know where to start? The Neepawa ArtsForward Patrons Program would be a good choice. The Patrons Program started in 2016 and it offers funding for many after school activities. This program operates by giving the people a chance to sign up to become a patron and give back to the community. As a patron you are asked to contribute $100 a year for a 5 year commitment.
As a result of the donation you are put on the donors recognition wall in the ArtsForwad building along with an invitation to the annual patrons event. Right now there are 25-30 donors with a goal of reaching up to 50. There are three after school programs running right now and they are After School Art (visual arts), After School Kids Choir and After School Spoken Poetry.
The After School Kids Choir is entered in the Neepawa and District Fine Arts Festival this year along with the spoken poetry class which is being re-introduced after being absent for several years. Some of the past programs have been creative writing, play writing and dance. This spring ArtsForward is introducing highland dance. The benefit of having the Patrons Program include giving the youth an affordable and fun activity after school because the Patrons Program donations help subsidize the cost of materials, instructors and space giving you a flat rate of only $5 to enjoy these activities.
Because of cuts in government funding ArtsForward started looking for funding outside of government sources and found that the community wasn’t really involved in youth funding so they thought that the Patrons Program was a great way to see if the community wanted to help. “I think, without question, that the after school programs are important for the youth,” said Rrain Prior, director of programming at ArtsForward. Over the years ArtsForward has collected research and found that the after school programs help youth improve their social skills and marks in school. When asked about how the Patrons Program came to be Prior answered
“We felt this was something people would be supportive of and it gives every kid the opportunity to try something new.” The class sizes are limited to 12 children per class but lately the classes have grown as high as 20. There are three instructors involved for the different programs but ArtsForward is always looking for more classroom volunteers. “Ideally I’d like to have an after school program every day of the week, but we are slowly growing to do that,” said Prior.
The Patrons Program doesn’t just fund the after school activities but also any other youth activities. Feedback from this program has been “overwhelmingly positive, not everyone is able to contribute but I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t think this is a good idea,” added Prior. “It’s a pleasure to see so many kids in here having a great time with art.” Anyone can become a Patron by signing up at the ArtsForward building, online at the ArtsForward website with the online donation form or you can donate through PayPal.
