Community invited to exhibition Friday
to see what children learned at Arts Camp
PABLO — The Montana Arts for Hope Camp, held this week at Three Eagle River School, will showcase what the children have learned at 1 p.m. Friday in the Arlee Charlo Theater, next to the gymnasium at Salish Kootenai College.
Everyone in the community is invited to attend this exhibition.
“They will see their young people doing things they haven’t seen them do before. The arts give family and friends an opportunity to see children in a new and positive light,” said Dr. Vivian Nix-Early, director of the camp and co-founder of BuildaBridge International of Philadelphia, PA.
Seeing children in a positive light is important, added BuildaBridge’s co-founder and president, Dr. J. Nathan Corbitt, who is also here helping lead the camp. “When we encourage our children we enhance the future for all of us,” Dr. Corbitt said.
The camp is staffed by volunteers, most from the Philadelphia area, who came to Pablo at their own expense and are donating their time. The team includes a professional actor, dancer, mural painter, chef, photographer and writer, along with several graduate students from Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia.
Two Montana residents are also on the teaching team: photographer David J. Spear, who teaches and works in Pablo, and Melody Rice of Butte, a licensed professional counsellor and certified specialist in grief counseling and art therapy.
BuildaBridge programs use the arts as a means of building hope and communications skills which help children perform better in school and get a job later in life.
The camp this week includes five classes: movement and dance, mural painting, culinary arts, photography and acting.
BuildaBridge has conducted arts camps and after-school programs in Philadelphia since its founding in 1997. Its growing group of volunteer “artists on call” have also conducted camps overseas. They were invited here by the Tribal Council.
(Photo caption) Ana Michel shows chef Steve Thompson, a member of the BuildaBridge “Artists on Call” team, her progress in making a ball of pizza dough in Culinary Arts class Tuesday morning. She’s being assisted by Melody Rice, of Butte, Montana, another member of the team. That’s Dr. Vivian Nix-Early, co-founder of BuildaBridge, next to Ana.
