Omaha Conservatory of Music to Receive National Endowment for

DATE: May 6, 2015 CONTACT: Gina Dvorak, ​
ginadvorak@omahacm.org​
, 402­932­4978 Omaha Conservatory of Music to Receive National Endowment for the Arts grant
OMAHA, Neb. — The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has announced that Omaha Conservatory of Music (OCM) will be among those receiving one of its 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round. In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a $10,000 award to OCM to support research related to the implementation of String Sprouts at the new Nelson Mandela Elementary School, slated to open at 6316 N. 30th St. in Fall 2015. Through its grant­making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across the country to experience the arts and exercise their creativity. “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from Omaha Conservatory of Music represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality,” NEA Chairman Jane Chu said. Ruth Meints, OCM’s executive director, said the grant was a milestone for the Conservatory. “In my 10 years as executive director of Omaha Conservatory of Music, this is among the highest honors we have received,” she said. “We are thrilled and elated to have been recognized for the research we are doing by the nation’s most influential arts funder.” Since its launch in 2013, the Conservatory’s String Sprouts program has attracted much attention for its innovative approach to addressing a pressing social issue: the need for high­quality, free early childhood education programs. String Sprouts begins at ages 3 and 4 and continues through 4th grade, when public school strings programs begin. The program loans tiny string instruments to these children and provides free lessons for 32 weeks each year in underserved communities. String Sprouts now touches 500 families in Nebraska and will expand to serve more than 1,300 families in Nebraska and Western Iowa this Fall. The NEA grant will partially fund research into substantiating the program’s hypothesis: that early childhood string instrument education can significantly impact academic outcomes. Specifically, the NEA grant will fund the study of how varying certain elements of the program at the Nelson Mandela site will impact various metrics of early education academic achievements and parent/child relationships. To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring2015, tagging @OmaConservatory. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, please go to arts.gov ***** About String Sprouts
Ruth Meints, OCM executive director, has created a unique curriculum for 3­ and 4­year­olds which includes delightful new repertoire written by a young, local composer Dryden Meints. Watch them — and others — talk more about this program in a video called “What is String Sprouts?” found on our website at ​
http://stringsprouts.org/learn­more/​
. This past season, OCM also began working with the Munroe Meyer Institute/University of Nebraska Medical Center to find out how the String Sprouts program impacts these young student’s academic outcomes over time. ***** About Omaha Conservatory of Music
OCM is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) school that builds musical community through education and performance to enrich lives. The Omaha Conservatory of Music provides private lessons in violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, guitar, voice, winds, brass, and percussion, as well as conducting, music composition, and theory. In early 2016, the Omaha Conservatory of Music will be moving to its new permanent home: a world­class facility at 7023 Cass St.