Summer with the Arts

Local students get into the arts through summer conservatory program

By Ralph Hardin

ralphhardin@gmail.com

There are all sorts of summer camps: band camp, church camp, football camp, wilderness camp, and more. Yes, summer offers a variety of camps your child can attend, but none like the DeltaARTS camps.

And that’s where a group of students from the Academies of West Memphis have been for the past several days, taking part in the DeltaARTS Summer Conservatory.

The youngsters are now preparing for their upcoming performance of Disney’s “The Aristocats KIDS,” a 30minute stage production full of feline fun.

The showcase will be held Friday, July 19 and Saturday,

See ARTS, page A6

Photos courtesy of DeltaARTS ARTS

July 20, at 2 p.m. both days.

Many of the WMSD students are attending using scholarship opportunities provided through a board approved partnership.

About DeltaARTS

DeltaARTS is non-profit based in West Memphis, Arkansas, providing imaginative arts education for the Delta.

Founded in 1971, DeltaARTS provides creative writing workshops, art exhibits, art camps, and theater experiences for children and youth in the Arkansas Delta and surrounding communities. They provide programs at theirr Arts Education Center and Art Museum in West Memphis and at schools and afterschool programs throughout the region.

School programs are all artsintegrated, meaning that they include not only teaching an art form, but also using that art form to teach an academic skill. For example, building literacy skills through creative writing lessons and visual art projects that include new vocabulary words in a part of the drawing or painting.

At DeltaARTS, they believe that all children need and deserve year-round access to the arts to help them develop new creative skills, gain confidence, succeed academically, and build the social-emotional tools they need to prosper in life.

From page A1

Photos courtesy of DeltaARTS