Mora Creative Arts Camp
Anita Moss is the creative director of our organization, Mora Arts & Cultural Compound (Mora ACC), as well as a Mora business owner and active member of the community. Between Moss, Suzanne Cole, and a handful of amazing volunteers, we created our first Creative Arts Camp.
The Camp was a success, thanks to our creative educational activities and the able help of our community volunteers. We managed to teach the Mora youth about the importance of composting and recycling while also having fun creating art. Having both an active organization and teamwork with NMSU has been key to creating educational events within the community.
Mora ACC has a five-year plan regarding goals and projects,one of which is more youth activities, involvement and education. Now filling a much needed gap is a new NMSU extension agent, Suzanne Cole, who is excited to do some youth outreach during the summer.
The Mora ACC is all about combining resources, networking and working together. Though these camps were mostly sponsored through the Mora ACC, both our extension agent and our Vista intern, Paulina Alarcon, were on hand to volunteer, run errands and help get the word out through their communications channels. In addition, with Anita, as both the Mora ACC coordinator and as business owner of The Boutique, we have a public place to hold events. The owners of the property are generational in Mora and really want to see this sort of progress. They have made it easy for Anita, renting as a business, to include community activities.
By just being an open business, we can tell every visitor, most who are from our community, what programs and projects are happening right here. This combination
of volunteering to make projects like our art camps, coordinating our local non-profit, while also running The Boutique, is an example of working smarter, not harder. Also, it helps us network and combine resources with other community organizations all at the same time.
Next year we will probably do two art camps in different weeks for the K-4th grade since that camp had the biggest demand.
Realistically, we can manage no more than 18 students well, even with several excellent volunteers. This year we combined lessons about primary and secondary colors with hands-on activities, using Monsters as our theme. Between projects we read four short stories, and the kids were very attentive. The older students enjoyed a short story as well.
We want to thank all our wonderful parents who trusted us with their children and hope we helped to spark in them a love for the arts. It is always fulfilling to know that by using creativity we can make a difference in a child’s life.
Authors: Paulina Alarcon / Anita Moss