Miller Foundation Gifts Support Campus Programs for Kids

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Children learn to make prints as part of UMFA’s Art in a Box outreach program.

Recent generous gifts from both the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation and the Larry H. Miller Charities (Larry H. Miller Philanthropy) to several different campus programs benefitting kids are enriching the lives of thousands of Utah children and their families, truly inspiring future generations.

“The Miller family believes in the importance of education and providing opportunities for children to learn,” says Jay Francis, executive vice president of corporate affairs and Miller Family Philanthropy. “They have a long-standing history of support for the University of Utah and its various programs and this is another example of their belief in giving back to the communities where we do business.”

miller-photo-1Families inspect the books at KUED’s Ready to Learn family education night.

A recent Miller Philanthropy grant supports KUED’s Ready to Learn initiative, which builds on the strength of PBS children’s programs, making it possible to provide a number of community activities to involve parents as learning partners with their children. Designed to empower children to succeed in school as well as in life, free family education nights—50 this year, reaching approximately 8,000 children and 5,000 parents and caregivers—are being held at 20 Title 1 elementary schools and four Head Starts in Salt Lake County. Learning activities focus on media literacy and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the STEM disciplines. Afterward, the kids leave with a free book related to the evening’s activities.

“The Miller family’s support is invaluable in helping parents and children engage in learning moments together and preparing for success in school,” says Elise Peterson, KUED education coordinator. KUED distributes more than 8,000 books to Utah children each year.

Another recipient of the Miller family’s generosity is Art in a Box, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ statewide outreach program. Art-making projects—this year printmaking and a how-to-use-color project are offered to K-4 students in schools throughout the state. Each box contains lesson plans, reproductions of artwork, and high-quality art-making tools and supplies. The boxes then become the permanent property of the participating school. In addition, students are taught appropriate ways to handle art objects from the museum’s education collection. Art in a Box in 2014 is expected to reach approximately 9,000 students.

Art in a Box recently was presented at Parkside Elementary, a Title 1 school in Murray, Utah, where 45 percent of the students receive free school lunch and its minority enrollment is about 35 percent. “Many of our kids come from humble circumstances,” says a Parkside teacher. “But they are filled with imagination. Art is one of the beautiful gifts in life that transcends wealth and class.”

With field trips and arts programs slowly disappearing from public schools, she adds her thanks to the museum for prioritizing beauty, joy, and imagination—and for believing such things remain important.

“Generous support and encouragement from the Miller family helps us bring the magic of the museum’s collection to students and teachers statewide, exposing students to visual art at an early age and building sustainable visual arts education capacity in classrooms in every school district in Utah,” says Gretchen Dietrich, the museum’s executive director.

In addition to the Ready to Learn and Art in a Box programs, Larry H. Miller Philanthropy also is supporting a substance abuse treatment program for young people under the age of 18 through the U’s Department of Psychiatry, and the Go Girlz Community Initiative, a mentoring program through the Women’s Resource Center that supports and encourages underserved and primarily minority girls in grades six through 12 to pursue higher education.

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