FAIRFIELD, Maine – The Plum Creek Foundation recently awarded a $3,260 grant to the L.C. Bates Museum to help fund the Young Naturalists As Artists program, a six-week educational program for local children and families that uses scientific and artistic observation to grow lifelong interest in Maine’s inland environment.

 

According to Deborah Staber, director, the program merges art and environmental education in classrooms and at the museum by using the museum’s natural history collections, wooded trails and wetland areas as subjects for artistic and scientific investigations. The program will be offered to 30 fourth grade classrooms at eight central Maine schools and to all grade levels at Jackman Elementary School. It will also be used for the museum’s Family Fieldtrips and Children’s Explorations programs.

 

The program will focus on inland Maine’s forest and wetland ecology. The first half of each program will introduce children to forest animals and habitats and the second half will focus on using the students’ creative skills to observe and document natural materials and areas.

 

“Young Naturalists As Artists will offer a much-needed program for our rural elementary school children and their families,” said Staber. “Thanks to the help of the Plum Creek Foundation, we can provide participants the opportunity to find a deep connection to Maine’s natural habitat and identify as an artist and naturalist.”

 

The L.C. Bates Museum is an early 20th century natural history and cultural museum. The museum was founded in 1911 and strives to use its exhibitions, collections and programs to inspire wonder, knowledge and understanding of the natural world and human cultural environments.  For more information, visit www.gwh.org/lcbates.

 

The mission of the Plum Creek Foundation is to provide philanthropic contributions to support and improve the general welfare of life in the communities that Plum Creek serves. The Foundation board meets quarterly to review applications submitted from organizations in the company’s operating communities. Visit the Community Involvement page on Plum Creek’s website at www.plumcreek.com to download an application.

 

26 Sep 2014