Lone Tree Receives Grant from NEA

The NEA grant will allow LTAC to keep costs low and quality high for the educational series throughout the 2012-13 season.

The Lone Tree Arts Center (LTAC) was awarded an Arts Education in American Communities grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The $10,000 grant is to support programs that further arts education. The grant names Passport to Culture and Seedlings as the primary programs of focus, as well as workshops and classes that engage children and adults in arts education.

Passport to Culture is designed to serve children from 3 – 10 years old and their parents and grandparents. Through programs representing a diverse array of cultures and performing arts genres, Passport demonstrates and teaches about art forms from around the world. This program brings together artists and families the third Sunday of each month. Most programs begin with an introduction by the artists about their particular work, followed by a performance.

Seedlings is a similar program, but is designed specifically for pre-school aged children. Scheduled the first Tuesday of the month at lunchtime, this innovative program fosters the belief that arts learning can begin at any time. By introducing young children to a variety of arts genres, Seedlings hopes to create life-long artists and arts enthusiasts. Seedlings programs are tailored to the interests and abilities of the very young – over a 30 to 45 minute time period, storytellers, puppeteers, singers, and visual artists specifically trained in working with small children share their work and encourage each child to play/sing/act along.

The final component of the grant speaks to educational classes and workshops for all ages. LTAC has a variety of classes available year-round. Pre-professional level theater classes are taught by local, working theater professionals in the Treehouse Academy. Recreation level courses are available on Saturdays during the school year as well as multi-day sessions during fall break and winter break. Some of the exciting upcoming sessions are Superhero in the Making, a fall break session that includes making a costume for Halloween, and Improv Intensive, a winter break session that challenges young actors with character development and creative thinking.

For more information on tickets or class registration, please visit www.LoneTreeArtsCenter.org or call 720-509-1000 Monday-Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The Lone Tree Arts Center is a professional, innovative and environmentally friendly venue. LTAC operates a dynamic model for the performing arts by collaborating with some of the premier Front Range performing arts companies to present their productions in Lone Tree as well as presenting national and regional tours. LTAC has quickly discovered its place as a new provider of arts education programs for children and an important meeting and event rental site for corporate, civic, private, and community arts groups.