The University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is one of over 30 recipients of a 2015 Art Builds Communities grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. The commission has awarded $5,800 in matching funds to the campus museum.

The grants match financial support from the community for projects that address a local need through an arts-based solution. Over the past few years, leaders at the museum and in the community have realized the need to reach out to Eugene’s Latino population through the arts.

This year, the grant money will help fund the Club de Arte para Mamás, or Moms’ Art Club, a program that provides free, hour-long, drop-in art workshops — childcare included — for Latina mothers at the UO and in the Eugene community.

“We really try to be as welcoming as possible,” said Debbie Williamson Smith, the communications manager at the museum. With the grant money, the museum is able to expand the program’s marketing and publicity as well as make improvements to the club itself.

In addition to new art supplies and the hiring of Spanish-speaking workshop leaders, the grant will fund personalized gallery visits for club participants and more opportunities for the women to produce art while socializing with one another.

“We’re taking it beyond the studio and making it an in-depth learning experience,” Williamson Smith said.

Arthurina Fears, the museum educator for studio programs and leader of the moms’ club, is excited about the new improvements to the program. She believes the grant will allow the museum to make significant changes to the club and expand the scope of its community outreach efforts.

“I have greatly enjoyed leading workshops for the women and teaching them new techniques for them to create a tangible representation exploring  their roles as not only mothers, but also as women and individuals,” Fears said. “It’s amazing to see the women exploring aspects of their lives through art.”

—By Nathaniel Brown, Public Affairs Communications