Coos Art Museum receives major grant in partnership with Sunset Middle School, June 10

Coos Art Museum has recently been the recipient of a major grant to help build arts programming at Sunset Middle School. The award is administered by the Oregon Community Foundation and is a part of their Studio to School program. The award is very substantial with $70,000 per year provided for three consecutive years. “Studio to School is a multi-year grant program to support collaborative projects between schools and community arts organizations to design and deliver sustainable arts education opportunities that have the potential for replication.”  As the result of a bequest from wood products manufacturer Fred Fields, Oregon Community Foundation recently awarded a total of $1,260,000 in individual grants of $70,000 each to 18 projects around the state for their first year of Studio to School funding. “Preference was given to programs that: focus on low-income youth, rural youth or youth of color: include both in-school and out-of-school time programming; and expand on existing local resources and programs.” Coos Art Museum was selected in part because of its past experience with providing school outreach in a program that ran between the years 1994 and 2004. “Education is one of the three core activities of the museum along with exhibitions and collections management. The availability of this grant funding will greatly contribute to fulfilling our mission while providing a wonderful service to the community,” said Steven Broocks, Executive Director of the Museum.