EPISODE · Oct 4, 2022 · 1H 13M
Sitka Fine Arts Camp: Sitka, AK (pop. 8,500)
from Small Town Big Arts · host Media Squatch
This month's guest is Executive Director Roger Schmidt of The Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska (pop. 8,500). The Sitka Fine Arts Camp was founded in 1973 to provide isolated Alaskan communities with little or no youth arts programs exposure and training in the arts. Because of remoteness and low population density, Alaskan youth are at a severe disadvantage in access to high quality arts. They serve approximately 1,000 students annually from Alaska and throughout the world. SFAC has received state and national recognition for its importance in providing access to high quality arts education to Alaskan youth including receiving the 2008 presidential Coming Up Taller Award and the 2015 Alaska Governor’s Award for Arts Organization of the Year. In 2011, SFAC was gifted the historic Sheldon Jackson College Campus. This college campus had been closed for four years and was in a state of complete disrepair. SFAC oversaw one of the most extraordinary grassroots volunteer stories in our country: the revitalization of this National Historic Landmark. Between 2011 and 2015 one thousand volunteers (one ninth of Sitka’s population) logged over 45,000 volunteer hours rebuilding the campus, demonstrating unprecedented community support and giving the Sitka Fine Arts Camp a permanent home. Visit https://www.fineartscamp.org to learn more about this incredible organization.
What this episode covers
This month's guest is Executive Director Roger Schmidt of The Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska (pop. 8,500). The Sitka Fine Arts Camp was founded in 1973 to provide isolated Alaskan communities with little or no youth arts programs exposure and training in the arts. Because of remoteness and low population density, Alaskan youth are at a severe disadvantage in access to high quality arts. They serve approximately 1,000 students annually from Alaska and throughout the world. SFAC has received state and national recognition for its importance in providing access to high quality arts education to Alaskan youth including receiving the 2008 presidential Coming Up Taller Award and the 2015 Alaska Governor’s Award for Arts Organization of the Year. In 2011, SFAC was gifted the historic Sheldon Jackson College Campus. This college campus had been closed for four years and was in a state of complete disrepair. SFAC oversaw one of the most extraordinary grassroots volunteer stories in our country: the revitalization of this National Historic Landmark. Between 2011 and 2015 one thousand volunteers (one ninth of Sitka’s population) logged over 45,000 volunteer hours rebuilding the campus, demonstrating unprecedented community support and giving the Sitka Fine Arts Camp a permanent home. Visit https://www.fineartscamp.org to learn more about this incredible organization.
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Sitka Fine Arts Camp: Sitka, AK (pop. 8,500)
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