The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is pleased to announce the creation of a new mobile arts-learning platform—The Oregon Coast Art Bus, which will bring creative learning projects to students throughout Lincoln County this summer and beyond. The project has been funded by the K-12 Summer Learning Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation and is designed to address the “opportunity gap” associated with educational challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Oregon Coast Art Bus’s summer initiative will focus on under-served youth populations, with the first bus tour scheduled to launch on Saturday, August 14, 1pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center (777 W. Olive St.). The tour launch event will be free and families are encouraged attend.
“The Art Bus brings OCCA’s programs deeper into the community,” says OCCA executive director Jason Holland. “It helps us remove some of the barriers to arts participation and creates more equity and access which is critically important right now. Over time, we plan to build partnerships with community organizations across Lincoln County and beyond, to bring our high-quality arts programs right to their doorstep. OCCA’s Arts Bus is fueled by creativity and innovation and you never know where we may show up next!”
Funds from the Oregon Community Foundation’s K-12 Summer Learning Fund are being used to purchase and build out the art bus, prepare it for safe travel, purchase bus furnishings, and develop onsite arts projects and take-home art-to-go kits. The art bus will also serve as a mobile Internet hotspot. The purchased bus, a 2000 AmTran RE 3000, was previously owned by the Jefferson County School District and then a private owner in Florence. The bus tour’s summer goals include serving over 800 students with both on-site and take-home arts programming. Art classes will be presented outdoors or inside the bus in case of inclement weather. The summer learning curriculum will be based on two texts developed for young learners: “Ellie’s Strand” and “Ellie’s Log” by ML Hearing and Judith Li (OSU Press).
The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is currently working with community partners to establish the tour schedule, which will be announced at the August 14 tour launch event (tour details to follow). Interested community organizations are encouraged to contact OCCA at 541-265-6569 to discuss their interest in being part of the art bus tour, which will include stops in rural towns across the county.
“The Oregon Coast Art Bus Project is designed to be very responsive to community needs,” says OCCA VAC director Tom Webb. “We encourage schools, libraries and other community organizations to be creative right along with us. The summer tour will focus on the visual arts but there is no limit on the variety of arts programming that could be associated with the art bus.”
Pictured in the bus (l-r): Jason Holland (OCCA Executive Director), Cynthia Jacobi (Newport City Council member), Moe Snyder (OCCA instructor), Sara Siggelkow (OCCA Arts Education Manager), Cathey Briggs (OCCA board member), Dean Sawyer (Newport Mayor), David Gomberg (Oregon State Representative), Gary Lehman (OCCA volunteer), Tom Webb (OCCA VAC Director), Dietmar Goebel (Newport City Council member).