Arkansas Learning Through The Arts opens new office
Arkansas Learning Through The Arts celebrated the opening of its new office at 835 Central Ave., Suite 424, recently with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, joined by The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
“I am so happy to actually be in a place where we can sit down and meet,” said Craig Welle, ALTTA executive director. “We had a lot of meetings at the Chamber of Commerce; they have a conference room. We also met sometimes at the Garland County Library, so now we can have our own space and it’s great.”
ALTTA was formed in March 2012 in Garland County with the mission to improve student achievement through arts-integrated programming, according to a news release.
An affiliate of Young Audiences Arts for Learning, it is among approximately 30 other community arts providers from coast to coast that are, and have been, deeply engaged in providing quality arts programming in schools since Young Audiences’ founding in 1952, the release said.
“Most of our work is here in Hot Springs, so to have a presence here, I think, will really help us,” Welle said. “We’ve had some potential artists come in, because Hot Springs is a wonderful arts community, and it’s just so much more professional in an office than trying to meet somewhere else.”
ALTTA supports 10 artists from the Arkansas Arts Council Arts in Education Artist Roster to provide arts and literacy integrated residences for grades PreK-12 in approximately 20 schools in central Arkansas and the Delta region, including Garland, Pope, Pike, St. Francis and Phillips counties.
Teachers and administrators select from over 50 curriculum-based arts programs that link to the regular classrooms’ unit of study. The programs connect to Arkansas curriculum frameworks in English language arts, social studies and math. ALTTA works with Teaching Artists to develop detailed lesson plans that integrate their art form into the classroom curriculum.
Each program offers students an engaging, hands-on arts experience creating and performing/exhibiting their individual and or group work. The Teaching Artists represent many art forms including art, music, theater, storytelling and dance in regular and arts specialists’ classrooms.
“Working with kids is our mission. Bringing literacy to life is our mission. We’re all about the kids and that’s what we’re here (for),” Welle said.
“We are very happy to have a presence in the local community and we look forward to linking with other cultural and educational organizations to bring literacy to life for students in Hot Springs,” he said in the release.
Email Welle at cmwelle@gmail.com or visit https://www.altta.org for more information.