Arts Education Gets $70,000 Boost

Culture and arts education for youth in the Antelope Valley are receiving a significant boost through recent grants totaling $70,000, the Lancaster Performing Arts Center Foundation has announced.

The money will help fund several programs for the area’s kindergarten through high school students, enabling them to take music workshops, learn art history, go on museum tours, and attend lectures and theater performances, said Carol Rock, marketing coordinator for the arts center.

It will also help kids put on theatrical performances for the community, fund a high school art show, and provide scholarships for visual and performing arts classes.

“There is a tremendous benefit from exposing children to the visual and performing arts,” said Lou Bozigian, president of the foundation.

“Studies have shown a correlation between arts education and improved academic skills.”

Introducing children to the arts as they are growing up also helps them “appreciate the finer things in life,” Bozigian added.

Sources of the money include a $25,000 grant from Edison International, the parent corporation of Southern California Edison; $5,000 from Boeing Co., and $5,000 from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s office.

The foundation, a separate nonprofit organization that supports the performing arts center, is providing a matching $35,000 contribution.

Alis Clausen, regional manager of public affairs for Edison, praised the arts center for its variety of programming for children of all ages and its role as a regional cultural center that benefits communities well beyond the city of Lancaster.

“The arts are key to quality of life to our service communities,” Clausen said. “These cultural offerings bring out all of our diverse groups.”