Sally Ralston, the Executive Director of the Cascadia Art Museum, wrote us a great thank you letter that we wanted to share. The Hazel Miller Foundation is proud to be able to give back to the community keep educational programs going and help children learn.
Dear Shannon and Board of Directors,
In December of 2023, Cascadia Art Museum received a generous grant award of $25,000 from The Hazel Miller Foundation. The purpose of the grant was to support our educational programming and all funds were used for this intent. Thanks to this grant our educational programing has grown and is reaching thousands of children and adults in our community.
Cascadia Arts for Schools is a fun interactive tour for K-8 students. This program meets Washington State standards through facilitated dialogue, storytelling and hands-on art creation, but most of all it fosters a lifelong love for the arts. This year we reached over 800 students with this program, an increase of nearly 175 students from last year.
We are proud of our partnership with the Edmonds Historical Museum. Together we created and delivered Sharing our Story, a program for students allowing them to reflect on how historical events have impacted the lives of artists. Students are invited to write their own art inspired life stories.
Cascadia Art for Schools and Sharing our Story are completely free to public schools, including bus transportation. Programs like these are more important than ever as reductions in art funding are a harsh reality for our community. With the help of this grant, we are meeting the needs of teachers and families that are looking for meaningful and affordable art enrichment opportunities.
Cascadia is known as the hub for cultural activities in our community. Our lectures, art workshops, movies, classical music concerts and annual Community Art Day all exceeded our expectations this year by record attendance and rave reviews. These programs offer adults and children an opportunity to engage with the arts in an easily accessible and welcoming environment. The faithful and generous support of the Hazel Miller Foundation is vital to Cascadia and our mission. We are deeply grateful.
Kind regards,
Sally Ralston
Executive Director
Cascadia Art Museum