A local arts organization has been chosen to receive a statewide award from the Missouri Arts Council.
The Springfield Regional Arts Council, led by Leslie Forrester, will be honored with the Missouri Arts Award for Arts Education at an event in February at the Missouri State Capitol.
Forrester said the honor allows them to take a moment to think about the impact their educational efforts have across the community, and they’re proud to see their work recognized statewide.
"We spend so much of our time on the practical side and putting it to work and working with students and our partners and our teaching artists," she said, "that we don't often pause to celebrate what we've accomplished, so this is a really great opportunity for us to do that and to really celebrate the creativity that happens in southwest Missouri.
SRAC provides arts education to 27 counties in southwest Missouri. They partner with schools and community groups for the Growing Up in the Arts program, which provides at-risk students in K-8 with interactive arts experiences. The organization also sponsors the annual Springfield Regional Arts Integration Conference for teachers, principals, teaching artists and more.
Forrester said they help kids to learn in different ways through creativity: Math through dance and rhythm, science through painting, and reading comprehension through looking at art.
They're also creating future audiences for the arts down the road, according to Forrester, "so it touches a lot of different things, and arts education is really beautiful in that way."
The Missouri Arts Awards began in 1983. Since then, 255 people, organizations and communities throughout the state have been recognized for the significant contributions to Missouri’s artistic and cultural legacy, according to the Missouri Arts Council.
