Sanders County Arts Council offers incentives

SANDERS COUNTY – In a new initiative to get students writing more, the Sanders County Arts Council is now aiming to reward kids for putting pen to paper.

The idea blossomed when the Montana Repertory Theatre visited Plains to perform The Miracle Worker – a play depicting the life story of Helen Keller.

According to Executive Director Jean Morrison, the goal of bringing in these performances is to enrich lives and help the students expand their knowledge of the arts.

Every year classes from the local high school attend the performance and this year SCAC offered the kids a $100 prize for the best review of the program.

Artistic Director of the Montana Repertory Theatre, Greg Johnson, was in charge of looking over the reviews.

This ensured there was no bias when picking a winner.

Sophomore Alan Ihms took first place for the best review and was awarded the grand prize money.

The hope is the program will expand to all the students in the county.

“The idea is now that the arts council will open it up to all the high school English classes,” Morrison said. “This is an idea that expanded to be totally inclusive because we are the Sanders County Arts Council.”

Her hope is to get the material to the classes beforehand so the kids have plenty of time to work on the project. This also gives teachers enough time to incorporate it in their lesson plans if they deem it fit.

The next story will be on The Great Gatsby. This will help expand the kids’ knowledge of classic American literature.

“It’s kind of nice to come out of high school and know a little more about American literature,” Morrison said.

Her goal with the new initiative is to get the kids writing as much as possible. She does not believe kids are writing enough and thinks it would spread a good message all over Sanders County.

“We are here to supplement what is available as far as the arts go to our schools,” Morrison explained.

After watching Ihms dive head on into the project, she enjoyed watching him work with the actors to get more information on the play.

“It was an interchange that made your heart feel good,” Morrison said.

The goal is to create more of these interchanges, ultimately enriching the lives of the youth in the county.