Campus receives $10,000 NEA grant for family celebration of the arts

Pitt-Bradford is one of 163 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant.

The university will use the grant to hold “Illuminations – A Celebration of Families and the Arts,” a day-long event that will provide educational activities and performances through the disciplines of the visual arts, dance, music, theater and literature for children from age 6 months to 10 years old and their families.

The event will take place on May 16 in Blaisdell Hall on campus. Pitt-Bradford Arts is collaborating with local community arts groups to present workshops throughout the day, including the Bradford Creative and Performing ArtsCenter’s Arts in Education Committee, Bradford Little Theater, and Studio B Dance Academy.

“I’m pleased to be able to share the news of our support through Challenge America, including the award to Pitt-Bradford,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “The arts foster value, connection, creativity and innovation for the American people, and these recommended grants demonstrate those attributes and affirm that the arts are part of our everyday lives.”

In addition to the NEA, other partners for the event include the Bradford Area School District and Bradford Kiwanis Club. Additional activities will include face painting, sidewalk art, healthy food vendors and arts-themed giveaways.

Two professional touring groups, Treehouse Shakers and the Okee Dokee Brothers, will also perform.

“Hatched” is a first-time theater experience for children 6 months to 5 years old presented by Treehouse Shakers, a nonprofit dance and theater company from New York City. “Hatched” is the original performance of a newborn chick emerging from her shell at sunrise to a strange and busy world.

Told to the youngest of audience members, it is a first introduction into the theater that incorporates both the museum and the farm. Performed through movement, handcrafted puppets and very little human dialogue, the story follows the chick as she meets a feisty old roster, a wobbly calf learning to talk, a gaggle of dancing chicks, a lamb and a noisy nest of baby birds.

The Okee Dokee Brothers are a Grammy Award-winning musical group with a goal to inspire children and their parents to get outside and get creative. The Okee Dokee Brothers began with childhood friends Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing, who grew up exploring the outdoors together in their Denver neighborhood.

The group’s first two albums, “Can You Canoe?” and “Through the Woods,” were inspired by their real-life exploits of a Mississippi River trip and an Appalachian Trail adventure.

The three-time Parents’ Choice Award winners have a nationwide fanbase drawn to their witty lyrics, strong musicianship and unique folkstyle. By appealing to the musical needs of the entire family and recognizing that kids deserve quality music, The Okee Dokee Brothers are working full-time to advance the family music genre.

The NEA’s Challenge America grants support projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability.

More details about Illuminations will be released soon. For more information, contact Patty Colosimo, coordinator of arts programming at Pitt-Bradford at (814)362-5113 or colosimo@pitt.edu. For disability needs related to the event, contact the Office of Disability Resources at (814)362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu.

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