Local students will benefit from the generosity of a First Niagara Foundation grant that will provide them with a bird’s eye view of arts education at The Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State. The grant has a huge payoff for local education—this school year it will sponsor guided tours free of charge to K-12 groups from across the region.
The First Niagara Foundation was established in 1998 and has worked to make an impact locally in three key areas: Youth and Education, Community Development, and Neighborhood Revitalization. This recent grant expands the existing education and outreach offerings at The Center.
“We are proud to partner with the Burchfield Penney to make sure every child in Buffalo has the opportunity to personally experience the arts. This program will help tap their creativity, fuel their intellectual curiosity and provide a unique opportunity for our students to learn and grow,” said Elizabeth Gurney, Executive Director of the First Niagara Foundation on the grant’s potential impact.
The sponsored trips to The Center afford local Buffalo students the opportunity to get up close and personal with the works of art they are learning about in the classroom.
“When a student is guided to first look and encouraged to imagine, remember and make connections, they begin to understand and really comprehend. Suddenly all of those higher-order thinking skills that educators are endlessly working towards are engaged…Nowhere on earth can this happen as easily as in a museum,” said Mary Marino Kozub, Burchfield Penney manager of education.
For more information on booking tours, educators can call Kozub at 716-878-3156 or email her at kozubmm@buffalostate.edu.
