May 24, 2012
MAM Award: Art Associates of Missoula
Times: 5-7 PM

Location: MAM

We invite our entire circle of supporters to join us in celebrating the Art Associates of Missoula and the Fifth Grade Art Experience’s 25th Anniversary.

The MAM Award is given with deep gratitude in recognition of the outstanding dedication, generosity, and service to MAM. We will commemorate the Art Associate’s precious and priceless contribution of high quality and free art education to MAM and will celebrate the Circle of Giving to MAM throughout the past year.

MAM Executive Director's Laura Millin praised the contributions of the Art Assoicates in the MAM's Spring/Summer 2012 newsletter:

In recognition of outstanding dedication, generosity, and service to MAM, and with deep gratitude, we give the MAM Award to the Art Associates of Missoula, in this 25th year of the Fifth Grade Art Experience. This exemplary education program, created by the Art Associates of Missoula in 1987 and co-produced with MAM annually since, has served 25,587 fifth graders from throughout Missoula County.

This has been an extraordinary gift from the Art Associates to the youth in our community and has enriched MAM’s educational programming immeasurably. Allow me to quantify the gift so you can understand its enormity.

Each year the Fifth Grade Art Experience is offered to all schools in Missoula County, free of charge, and is built around an exciting exhibition at MAM. The program annually employs from 1-3 artists/teachers and 45 volunteer art guides that serve on average 42 fifth grade classes. The Art Associates art guides contribute approximately 150 hours each year conducting in-depth tours of the exhibitions on view at MAM and offering quality hands-on art making experiences. The out-of-pocket expenses to conduct the program, which average $2,500 annually, have been provided by the Art Associates.

Additionally, the Art Associates have made an annual contribution to MAM’s operating budget of at least $2,500. A rough tally of the Art Associates 25 year investment in MAM and the Fifth Grade Art Experience is $132,000 and more than 4,000 hours of volunteer service! The Fifth Grade Art Experience, along with MAM’s other educational programs, struggled for twenty years without a bona fide classroom. When MAM launched its Renaissance Renovation and Expansion Campaign, new classrooms were a central goal. Enthusiastically, the Art Associates collectively contributed $75,000 to the capital campaign. In 2006, MAM was proud to dedicate the Art Associates Education Center in the lower level at the new MAM, where the Fifth Grade Art Experience and many other educational programs for aspiring artists and art lovers thrive to this day.

Please join us on Thursday, May 24, 5-7 PM, to pay tribute to the Art Associates of Missoula with the MAM Award and celebrate the Circle of Giving to MAM throughout the past year. Enjoy live music, libations, and hors d’oeuvres.