Clay Community Arts was created in 2006 with the mission to enhance the quality of life by providing community-based educational opportunities in the arts throughout the state. Lyell Clay made this program possible with his generous gift to the Clay Center in 2007. After more than a year of planning, the Clay Center launched this program in 2008. Since its inception, the program has enjoyed great success with hundreds of students taking part in music lessons with local instructors covering a variety of instruments including dulcimer, guitar, keyboard, violin, a variety of brass and woodwind instruments and voice.
The Clay Community Arts Program is currently in five West Virginia counties including: Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason and Mingo. Our community partners run the gamut from schools to community centers to churches, and provide the locations for these lessons. The program has also been at the center of several successful summer camp programs with community partners like the Partnership of African-American Churches in Kanawha County; Able Families in Mingo County; and the Big Ugly Community Center in Lincoln County. In the 2010-2011 school year, Clay Community Arts will continue to provide quality music lessons and musical instruments to young people in these counties. In the summer of 2011, we hope to maintain or expand our successful summer camp program with our partners. For more information on this exciting program, contact educator and program manager Lisa Green at 304-561-3555 or outreach@theclaycenter.org.
above: Students show off violin skills they learned at a summer program through the Clay Community Arts.
at left: Children at the Bob Dunbar Center in Charleston learn about the origins of contemporary music in a summer program.