By Andi Bourne
Pathfinder 

AAI Offers Annual Youth Grants and Scholarships In the Arts

 

Andi Bourne, Pathfinder

Ovando resident Zia Kloetzel accepts her youth grant from Scholarship Committee Chair Dona Aitken at last year's Alpine Artisan's Art Review and Talent Show. Kloetzel used her grant to attend the Montana Fiddle Camp.

SEELEY LAKE - Alpine Artisans, Inc. (AAI) is offering youth art grants and a senior scholarship to help young people pay for art, drama, dance or music educational activities any time through June 2018. Deadline to apply is April 26.

All K-12 students attending schools, or homeschooled, in the Blackfoot and Seeley-Swan Valleys are eligible for the Youth Grants. The maximum youth grant award is $200 to help with tuition and expenses for art, drama, dance, or music workshops, camps or lessons.

High school seniors graduating from Seeley-Swan High School, Lincoln High School, and graduating homeschooled students residing in the Blackfoot or Seeley-Swan Valleys, or former graduates now attending an institution of higher education, are eligible for a $500 scholarship to contribute to their studies majoring or minoring in one of the arts at an institution of higher education.

Artist and AAI member Dona Aitken has chaired the scholarship committee for the past four years. She said youth grants enable students to explore their interests in new medium or instrument, or expand their skills and experience in one they already know they like.

"Since our kids are growing up in small towns where the musical groups are necessarily very small, attending a music camp allows them to meet lots of other kids with shared interests and experience playing their instrument or singing in larger groups than are available at home," wrote Aitken in an email.

She added that students not only find these experiences fun, "it is a bit of a revelation in terms of what an expanding or inspiring experience it can be to make music in these larger groups."

The scholarship applicants are often individuals who have received youth grants in the past to help them develop their interests in the arts to the point that they want to pursue them professionally, whether that be in music, art, graphic arts, photography, film-making, theater or other arts. This is possible because individuals can receive up to three youth grants.

"We at AAI find the positive reports back from our awardees very gratifying and they motivate us to keep trying to sustain these programs," wrote Aitken.  

To learn more, pick up an informational sheet at the closest school office or visit http://www.alpineartisans.org. For questions contact Dona Aitken at 406-793-5836 or 406-360-1463 or email dbaitken@blackfoot.net or Martha Swanson, mandj@blackfoot.net, 406-793-5706.

 

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