The El Paso Museum of Art is determined to make art accessible to the entire community. To that end, several programs are in place to teach, engage and attract the public.
Art School Camps will be held March 13—16. Children ages 6 through 13 are encouraged to sign up for Ceramics, Cartoon, Photography and Painting and Drawing camps. The classes are led by the museum’s teaching artists.
In an effort to make the classes more accessible to children and their families, and ultimately to expose the community to the museum overall, scholarships are being offered for the camps.
“The scholarships are open to anyone,” said Claudia Ley, the museum’s art school coordinator. “We’re trying to make these classes available to everyone.”
The scholarship applications are available online and recipients are determined by museum staff. A set of questions are directed to children and their parents as a screening process. Answers to questions such as household size, income and the impact the classes will have on the child are taken into consideration.
It is Ley’s hope Art School Camp and other community involvement programs at the museum will make the facility more accessible to the public. She pointed out parent’s main concern is financial.
“It’s important for me to be able to reach out to the community and introduce them to art,” she said. “I knew I didn’t necessarily want to be an art teacher, but instead work with actual communities and invite them . . . to the museum, and to create community art projects.”
Another way to engage the public is through the Neighborhood Kids Program. Students from elementary schools Lamar and Aoy attend the museum once a month to peruse the exhibits and then participate in a hands-on project that integrates elements from the galleries.
“The students come in once a month and work on projects,” Ley said. “In May we have an exhibition, so their families can come and see the work they’ve done.”
For next year it’s her hope the program will encompass more schools.
Another project in the works is one that will engage the public and encourage people to come to the museum. Although she could not discuss details, she disclosed they are in the process of writing grants and want to incorporate that element.
“With the new administration and cuts to public art funding, we’re looking at how we are able to go out to the public and invite them to our space,” she said.
The public is also encouraged to check out any of the museum’s free Drop-In workshops and Family Days. About once a month the museum hosts an activity for people to check out the current exhibit and engage in a project related to it.
“The next Drop-In we have scheduled is related to the ‘Ethics, Excess, Extinction’ exhibit that’s currently up,” Ley said. “[Participants] can explore the exhibit and come back and draw an animal and create a story related to it.”
She said the exhibit focuses on the role humans play in animal extinction and endangering their habitats through pollution and other detrimental activities. She pointed out the Drop-In activity related to the exhibit is a good way for people, especially children, to learn about real-world situations through a modality that’s different from a classroom and textbooks.
For more information check out the museum’s website at epma.art