Highlights from the past year of our ACE Program
The United Way of Eastern Utah has chosen to fund our Arts & Culture Experience (the ACE Program) for an additional year!!! Thanks to their generous funding, we were able to host 35 arts and design workshops last year with over 240 unique participants. That’s over 25% of the population of Green River! We hosted 10 artists-in-residence (our awesome Frontier Fellows) from as far as Australia, and we mentored five Green River teens as interns. This year’s generous grant from the United Way of Eastern Utah will pay for program costs such as workshop and internship materials and supplies, travel stipends for Fellows and Interns, and projects like the Green River Newspaper. Last year’s ACE Program projects were a major success and this year will be even better thanks to the United Way of Eastern Utah. Not familiar with our ACE Program? It has three major components: internships, workshops, and Frontier Fellowships. Below we’ve outlined these three aspects.
Internships
Teens and young adults ages 12-20 are mentored in arts-based skills and career development through the ACE internships. The three main goals of the internship are to explore college options and careers in the arts, encourage creativity and self-expression, and expose Green River youth to professional designers and artists from around the world. Internships lasts one to two months, meeting with a mentor outside of school hours. We believe that one-on-one intensive mentorship is the best and most appropriate way to develop an arts interest or natural talent in teens. There are many intelligent and talented young people in Green River, and we want to help them create a future for themselves.
Workshops
Our all-ages workshops focus on the visual arts and creativity and engage a wider audience than the internship. When applicable, workshops are co-led by the teen interns who will inherently gain leadership, organizational, and public speaking experience, translating their gained knowledge into educational activities for community members. Opening the workshops to the entire community provides an intergenerational experience to nurture talents of community members of all ages. Our workshops and events provide entertainment and unity for all ages that choose to participate, and regular attendees will be able to make suggestions on future workshop topics and possibilities. Our workshops also include teaching art lessons and leading art projects in the high school, elementary school, in the CHEER after school program, and at the Boys & Girls Club of Green River. Much like the internship, these workshops focus on exploring creativity and
self-expression.
Frontier Fellows
The Frontier Fellowship is an artist-in-residence program started by Epicenter in 2011. Fellows are creative professionals who immerse themselves in the town for four weeks. While in residence, Fellows create projects that align with PACT’s mission and goals as well as working on self-initiated artworks. Visiting artists bring new energy into the community, allowing youth to experience a fresh perspective and see new possibilities within and outside of Green River. The Frontier Fellowship program provides regular highly trained artists and designers to participate in all aspects of the ACE program.