User:Camoldolesi/Sandbox

Wikipedia document (first draft/work in progress)

Founded in 1971, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts is the oldest arts organization in central Idaho’s Wood River Valley. The Center has grown from a few people presenting classes and events to an organization that serves more than 40,000 people a year (in a valley with a population of 22,000), 25 percent of whom are children. [KB, are these the numbers we want to use?] More than 60 percent of Center programs, and 80 percent of children’s programs, are offered free of charge.

The Center is nationally recognized for its unique multidisciplinary programming. The Center’s visual arts, performing arts and education and humanities directors work in tandem with the artistic director to develop three or four multidisciplinary projects a year that explore timely themes and topics from multiple perspectives. Recent topics include the relationship between DNA and identity, biodiversity, Tibetan art and culture, corporate America and philanthropy, and Mexican immigration and labor.

The Center works in partnership with other local nonprofit organizations and the Blaine County School District. Many performers, writers and artists who come to town to participate in Center programs also visit local schools. Distinguished visitors in recent years include E. O. Wilson, Louise Erdrich, WHO ELSE DO WE WANT TO NAME? SOME musicians/performers/artists would be good. In addition, The Center offers after-school art classes in both English and Spanish, either at area schools or at locations nearby, free of charge to elementary and middle-school students.

The Center offers a variety of scholarships to local students and teachers, paid for mostly out of proceeds from its only fundraising event, an annual Wine Auction. The Wine Auction, which celebrated its 27th year in 2008, is consistently ranked among the nation’s Top 10 Charity Wine Auctions by Wine Spectator magazine.

An annual Arts & Crafts Festival held in August attracts more than 20,000 [?] people and features 130 booths of fine arts and crafts. The Center also offers a year-round schedule of music and dance performances that includes three or more outdoor popular music concerts in the summer and smaller, more diverse offerings during the fall and winter months. Past performers include Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie, Lyle Lovett, AND SOME OF THE CLASSICAL PEOPLE.

The Center’s main gallery and staff offices are in Ketchum, but The Center also operates a second location in Hailey to better serve the needs of the growing population of southern Blaine County. The Hailey location consists of a historic 100-year-old house that was the birthplace of the poet Ezra Pound and a newly built, state of the art freestanding classroom. The Center is in the process of constructing a 22,500-square-foot new building in Ketchum, designed by noted architect Tom Kundig, which will include flexible spaces for exhibitions and performances and will serve as a gathering place for the community. The Center has registered the building for LEED certification.

In 2006 The Center received accreditation status from the American Association of Museums in recognition of its adherence to the highest standards of operation and programming. Only five percent of America’s arts and cultural institutions share this distinction. The Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.

[External Links]

List of museums currently accredited by the American Association of Museums

Sun Valley Center for the Arts

[See Also]