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Arts center lays out expansion, culinary-kitchen partnership and funded art-therapy pilot for Jamestown students
Summary
Mindy Schmidt of the Jamestown arts center described expansion plans including a culinary kitchen to be shared with Jamestown Public Schools, an artist-in-residence program and a StrengthenND-funded art-therapy pilot for middle-school students; board members praised the partnership.
Mindy Schmidt, representing the Jamestown arts center, told the Jamestown Public School Board Monday that the center's growth and new partnerships will expand student and community arts access, including a culinary kitchen being outfitted to serve both community classes and district students.
Schmidt described the center's long-running artist-in-residence program (currently featuring artist Anna Brock working with Kâ5 classes), ongoing after-school classes and a new culinary-kitchen project. She said Jamestown Tourism provided a grant to support the kitchen and that Jamestown Public Schools received a $146,000 grant to furnish equipment that meets the district's needs.
Schmidt said the arts center has raised about $1,700,000 to date on a project goal that has risen to $2,400,000; she described the culinary kitchen as a commercial kitchen that community members and cottage-food producers would be able to rent for certified production and said the new space would allow the arts center to expand Arts After School from roughly 12 students to about 40.
The center also described an art-therapy initiative funded through StrengthenND. Schmidt said Dr. Jennifer Lopetsky, an art therapist at the University of Jamestown, coordinated a pilot that ran January'June 2024 and that the site later received a two-year StrengthenND grant to continue and expand the program. The pilot identifies middle-school students who would benefit from eight-session art-therapy groups; year-two programming (September 2025'May 2026) would broaden age groups and produce a shareable toolkit for other communities.
Board members asked how students are identified for the art-therapy pilot; Mindy Schmidt said there will not be an application process for the pilot year, and Dr. Lopetsky will meet with counselors across the middle school to select 6 to 8 participants using a rubric developed for the program. Schmidt said the grant covers transportation from school to the art center and back.
The board received the presentation as part of its board-education agenda item and later approved related construction and equipment bids for the culinary project during consent business.
Schmidt closed by inviting board members to community events and described upcoming exhibits, summer camps and fundraising events tied to the expansion.
