�FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, December 5, 2008
Contact: Kenneth J. Wolfe
(202) 401-9215
Head Start Centers to Receive American Art
To enable Head Start children to explore U.S. history, all 20,000 Head Start centers will receive reproductions of significant American art the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office of Head Start and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced. The Picturing America SM education initiative will also be available to all K-12 schools and public libraries, NEH and ACF are expanding Picturing America resources by developing program materials for pre-K learners as well.
“Through Picturing America, Head Start children will be introduced to some of our nation’s greatest art,” said Daniel Schneider, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. “Many more-advantaged children are exposed to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mary Cassatt, Jacob Lawrence and Edward Hopper at a young age. Now Head Start children will have the same opportunities as their peers.”
Selected artists featured in the Picturing America collection range from early American Indian artisans to painters Mary Cassatt and Edward Hopper. Photographers Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange and architects Frank Lloyd Wright and William Van Alen are also included in the collection.
“Art is a powerful educational tool that can engage even our youngest learners,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “The Endowment is pleased to support Head Start's efforts to enhance early childhood development and family literacy.”
To celebrate today’s announcement, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (N.Y.) is hosting “The Art of Romare Bearden, a part of NEH’s Picturing America program” Dec. 5-7. CMOM’s program allows children to create collages in the style of Bearden who is universally praised as the 20th century’s leading collagist an influential American artist of African American heritage.
For more information on Picturing America visit http://PicturingAmerica.neh.gov.
More information on the Children’s Museum of Manhattan’s activities is available at http://www.cmom.org/.
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