Published Date: September 12, 2002
When the Taft Museum's renovation and expansion is completed in the spring of 2004, former gallery and exhibition space will have become the Charles H. Dater Education Room where programs for young people will expand their appreciation for art.
To help the museum fill the youth education void during the two-year construction closure, the Dater Foundation is funding "Galleries on the Go," a program that brings art into second-to-sixth-grade classrooms.
Museum volunteers take art reproductions -- either painting, porcelain, enamel or architecture -- into the classroom. Young people ask questions and share their opinions. The real fun begins when the "hands on" part of the program begins. If the art program features painting, the kids actually paint on their own small canvasses. If it's a porcelain program, they mold clay.
Dater grants have also supported Artists Reaching Classrooms ... Cincinnati artists showing their work in high schools in the area.
The Taft Museum of Art is well known as one of the finest small museums in the country. Charles P. and Anna Sinton Taft bequeathed their art collection to the citizens of Cincinnati, and after their deaths their former residence opened in 1932 as a museum to house and display the collection.
The Dater Foundation made the largest grant commitment in its history -- $500,000 -- to support the Taft Museum's renovation and expansion through funding of the Charles H. Dater Education Room.