The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art places emphasis upon its mission

of art education and has reached our rural audiences through our full-time staff

and community artists who bring valuable information about art to our students

and visitors to our Altoona, Johnstown, Ligonier Valley and Loretto Museums.

The arts are an integral part of our cultural heritage, and the Museum utilizes

artwork from lenders and its permanent collection as an introduction to the

history of American art for the people of the region and as a means of placing

the art of Pennsylvania and this region into a greater context. We believe it is

important to educate the current and future generations to value and appreciate the arts. In recognition of variations in educational backgrounds and learning styles, the Museum offers a variety of educational opportunities and designs education programs for three distinct audiences: the general public, the academic communities in which two of the facilities are located, and school

children.

     All four facilities offer a broad range of programming for the general

public, and the Museum facilities make programs and activities directly

accessible to an isolated rural population. To make the arts both approachable

and accessible, studio and art appreciation classes, workshops, film and

lecture series, artist-in-residence programs, and special family activities are

regularly scheduled. Classes are taught by qualified artists and educators from

the area, and special programs are offered for docents, teachers, the elderly,

artists, and families. Easily readable and informative didactic materials, self-tour

guides, and docent- and curator-led tours are provided for all exhibitions, as are catalogues with introductory essays.

     The Museum’s partnership with the rural schools of this region, the largest

program of its kind in the Commonwealth, has evolved into object-based, Arts-in-Education programs specifically designed to address national Art Education

Standards. These fully integrated lesson plans are based on works from the

Museum’s collection and are designed to stimulate discussions on and creation

of art. Artists’ in-school residencies, organized and administered by Museum

staff, also are an integral part of this program. Each are developed to be

brought directly into the classroom.

     In recognition of the Museum’s education programming and its initiative to

integrate the arts with school curriculum, the Museum received the 1997-1998

"Best Practice in Pennsylvania Arts Education" award from the Pennsylvania

Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In

November of 2001, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art was named a

recipient of the prestigious "Power of Creativity" Community Arts Education

Award Initiative by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading arts advocacy

organization, and Binney & Smith, maker of Crayola products. The award

recognizes exemplary visual arts education partnerships in the United States.

     In 2002, the Museum was selected for the National Award for Museum

and Library Service, as given by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The award recognized the Museum for its outstanding exhibition and education

programming, and cited it as a national model for all art museums.