Foley youth club gets $5K for arts

FOLEY, Ala. (WALA) - The John McClure Snook Youth Club of Foley (SYC) was awarded a grant in the amount of $5,250 by the Alabama State Council on the Arts for the After School Arts and Learning: Strings and Dance Program. The program was one of the highest ranked and top priority applications funded. Funding for the grant is part of the 2013 legislative appropriations, made out of the Education Trust Fund.

The grant will further the partnership between SYC and the Mobile Symphony Orchestra by providing semi-weekly violin and dance classes for the thirty youth enrolled in the After School Fine Arts and Academic Excellence program. Funding will also make it possible to offer Saturday dance classes to the general public. Those classes will consist of beginning ballet lessons for Pre-K through primary school age children and jazz, modern and liturgical dance lessons and choreography for pre-teen and teen youth.

SYC’s Fine Arts Program had its inaugural start in 2011 with a seed grant of $2,575 from the Alabama State Council on the Arts which was also a part of the 2012 legislative appropriations, made out to the Education Trust Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Those funds were used for the purchase of violins. Grants from the Snook Foundation and the Community Foundation along with funding from an anonymous source were also instrumental in the development of the fine arts and academic excellence program in 2011.

A choral music program for 11-16 year olds will also be offered beginning Monday, October 15. The workshops will be taught by Zachary Valrie, area musician and music educator. The Saturday dance classes will begin on October 20. The after school violin and dance classes have already begun with beginner and intermediate level students. Ms. Linda Abercrombie, an instructor for the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, and Ms. Monica Henry, well known choreographer for the University of Mobile, University of South Alabama and the Mobile theatre community, are the instructors for the violin and dance classes.

For more information on SYC Fine Arts classes, please call (251) 943-1483.

-Snook Youth Club of Foley