CEDAR CITY — The Southern Utah Museum of Art, Southern Utah University and artsFUSION will team up on select Monday nights starting Jan. 9 to bring performing and visual arts to life for families in Southern Utah.
The “SUMA Family Arts Night Series” – or “SUMA FANS” – will be held January through April on select Monday evenings from 6-7 p.m.
The SUMA FANS nights will focus on visual arts, dance and theater. Each night’s free activities will revolve around a particular monthly theme based on what is being displayed in the museum that month, said Alisa Petersen, the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Endowed Chair of Elementary Arts Education at Southern Utah University.
“For the month of January, there will be a really great exhibit of travel postcards and posters, kind of in ‘adventure style,’ made by SUU graphic design students,” Petersen said, “and so all of the activities this month will be based around that theme of the outdoors or travel or destination posters.”
In addition to a monthly theme, the particular art form in which attendees can participate will rotate based on the night. The first night of the month will focus on visual arts, the second night will be dance-related and the third will be theater. The first night for January will give family members an opportunity to create a landscape printing project similar to what will be on display in the museum.
Activities will be created by student teachers in their respective disciplines. The evenings are for families to visit SUMA and participate in free artistic activities. This gives parents, children and grandparents in the community many opportunities to create together.
“The SUMA Family Arts Night Series is a great example of how SUMA benefits so many members of our community,” Petersen said in a press release. “SUU undergraduate students will gain valuable experience creating and teaching hands on arts activities which children and families will get to enjoy. It is our hope that this series will inspire families to continue exploring creative activities together at home after they leave the museum.”
SUMA FANS is a collaborative effort between the Southern Utah Museum of Arts, Southern Utah University and artsFUSION, a program endowed by the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and run by Petersen.
“They have endowed many endowed chairs of elementary arts education at universities around the state,” Petersen said. “So they have gifted our university an endowment to fund arts education programming.”
This programming ranges from professional development workshops for elementary education teachers in the arts to sending artists out into the local elementary schools to work with teachers and children, Petersen said. They also put on the “Art, Music, & Me Summer Camp” for children.
In addition to being the endowed chair, Petersen is also on the board of SUMA representing education.
“This (SUMA FANS) was a great way for me to marry that role as a museum board member and my role as a faculty member,” Petersen said.
Petersen said she hopes community members will come out to experience the arts with loved ones at the SUMA Family Arts Night Series.
Event details
- What: “SUMA Family Arts Night Series.”
- When: Select Mondays from January through April from 6-7 p.m.
- Dates include: Jan. 9, 23 and 30; Feb. 6, 13 and 27; March 6, 20 and 27; April 3, 10 and 17.
- Where: Southern Utah Museum of Art, 13 S. 300 West, Cedar City.
- Cost: Free.
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