Thirty slots available at no charge

DEARBORN– SURA Arts Academy, a free, diversity-themed digital photography instruction program for youth run by the Arab American National Museum (AANM), is accepting registrations for the Spring 2009 semester, which begins on January 20 and concludes on April 7. Thirty (30) slots are available at no charge to students in grades six through nine who reside in southwest Detroit and adjacent areas.

Last month, SURA was honored by First Lady Laura Bush in a White House ceremony with one of just 15 Coming Up Taller Awards from the President’s Council on the Arts and the Humanities, after emerging from a field of 320 applicants. Coming Up Taller singles out the best arts- and humanities-based youth after-school programs in the United States. Only one other Michigan-based organization, Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, has ever received this award.

SURA is an Arabic word for photograph. In SURA Arts Academy, students are loaned new digital cameras. Photography students from the acclaimed Center for Creative Studies in Detroit then instruct the children on their operation during weekly sessions led by AANM educators at Munger Elementary School, 5525 Martin Ave., Detroit and on field trips. The sessions are held on Tuesdays from 3-4:30 p.m.

However, the camera is also a catalyst for discussion and the exploration of issues such as self-awareness, respect for others and the role of young people in their communities. Exhibitions of student photography are staged every fall at the AANM as the culmination of the previous academic year’s sessions.

“Arts education is increasingly important for youth, especially where school budgets are being cut and such programs are being eliminated from the curriculum,” says AANM Educator Janice Freij, who coordinates SURA. “According to the Arts and Civic Engagement report published by the National Endowment for the Arts, the decrease in arts participation for youth results in decreased exercise, volunteerism, and civic participation. But in our SURA Arts Academy, we’ve noticed increased grades and participation in both school and community activities among our participating students.”

SURA Arts Academy is funded by The Skillman Foundation and the President’s Council on the Arts and the Humanities, with past funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of State.