The Colquitt County Arts Center and the Board of Education have a long standing relationship. The Arts Center “lives” in the old Moultrie High School. We have partnered in arts education in the last 30 plus years by sending volunteers into the elementary schools to provide art instruction, training para-professionals to deliver art instruction, contracting with instructors to provide yoga for special needs children and providing students the opportunity to enjoy a live theater production thanks to a partnership with Stafford Foods (Wendy’s).We have also partnered on field trip opportunities for our children and youth theater groups to perform for their peers.

A tri-partnership with the Service League has provided every second grader the opportunity to spend a day in the Kaleidoscope Classroom for art experiences. The Arts Center is extremely grateful for these and many other opportunities to provide arts education for our children.

The Colquitt County Arts Center staff and instructors are ever mindful that the arts are not just a fluffy feel good addition to education but are an essential component of a well-rounded education for our students and citizens of our community. The arts should not be the first cut that is made when budgets get tight. Instead, we must continue to find ways to increase infusion of the arts into our schools if our children are to receive the very best education possible.

Allow me to share a few quotes:

“The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic … music, dance, painting, and theater are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.”

 –William Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

 “GE hires a lot of engineers. We want young people who can do more than add up a string of numbers and write a coherent sentence. They must be able to solve problems, communicate ideas and be sensitive to the world around them. Participation in the arts is one of the best ways to develop these abilities.”

— Clifford V. Smith, President of the General Electric Foundation

“The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create.”

— President Barack Obama

As most of you know I am an avid fan of Broadway Theater. I recently enjoyed an interview of Tommy Tune, who is a fabulous dancer, vocalist and performer. He said he had the opportunity to see a live theater performance while in high school and immediately knew that was where he belonged. What a gift to have had that opportunity to discover where you fit in this great big world.

I had that same experience in the ninth grade when I had the opportunity to see a local high school production of “Hello Dolly.” I was bitten by the theater bug big time and spent many years sharing that passion with students in our community. Literally hundreds of children have had the opportunity to find their gifts here on the stage of the Colquitt County Arts Center. Sadly, for every child whose family can transport their children to rehearsals and a production, there are dozens of children who do not have transportation beyond the school bussing system.

We MUST continue to offer opportunities for children to see live theater, experience art exhibits, play with clay and learn to sculpt, hold a paint brush and express themselves with color, learn to dance and tell a story with movement and find their voices in song or through a musical instrument. It is essential that the arts be included in education.

The Arts Center would like to offer a great big thank you to the Board of Education for continuing to make arts education opportunities available to the children in our community. And we are saying thank you by partnering with several other organizations, businesses, and the community, for a Teacher Appreciation event on Tuesday, August 8, from 4-6 p.m.

The Moultrie Service League, Volunteer Arts Alliance, Moultrie Federated Guild, Moultrie Junior Women’s Club and the Arts Center will host an event that will include delicious treats, tours of the Arts Center, door prizes, and goody bags filled with items teachers need for their classroom and generally have to purchase out of pocket or rely on parents to donate. This is where you come in! Items NOT available from the school system warehouse but needed by teachers include:

• Colored Sharpies

• Colored Paper Mate Flair pens

• Bandaids

• Clorox wipes

• Wet wipes

• Paper towels

The Arts Center will be collecting these items through the month of July. We encourage you to create a drive within your place of work, church or other clubs and organizations to partner with us to provide these items.

We also encourage any business that would like to come alongside us to show your appreciation of our educators by becoming a sponsor through door prize donations or financial support. Give us a call or expect a visit from one of our volunteers over the next few weeks as we pull this event together to celebrate our educators.

And come see us! We are open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Our current gallery exhibits include the Georgia Artists Invitational and the Georgia Artists with Disabilities exhibits and they are fabulous. All our galleries are open and free to the public to enjoy.

Check out our website for information about camps, classes and workshops. You can find us at www.colquittcountyarts.com and follow us on Facebook. Your Colquitt County Arts Center is truly the place where creativity finds community.