Grant seeks to get more students involved in Medal Day honoring novelist Toni Morrison
PETERBOROUGH, N.H., June 9, 2016 – Lincoln Financial Foundation has awarded The MacDowell Colony a grant to increase student participation in Medal Day, one of New Hampshire’s largest free public arts events, on August 14. With the $15,000 grant, Lincoln Financial continues as the longtime Medal Day Corporate Partner as MacDowell prepares to award the 57th Edward MacDowell Medal to Nobel laureate and Pulitzer-winning author Toni Morrison.
The Lincoln grant supports community engagement and programming to integrate MacDowell’s educational program, MacDowell in the Schools, with Medal Day. As a result, MacDowell is partnering with high schools in southern New Hampshire to introduce Morrison’s works to students.
Students who attend Medal Day can participate in an Instagram contest and other activities and register to receive several prizes, including an iPad and a Kindle. They will also have the opportunity to meet artists-in-residence of all disciplines in their MacDowell studios, giving students direct insight into exciting new contemporary art and what it means to be a working artist today.
As The MacDowell Colony’s Medal Day Corporate Partner for more than a decade, Lincoln Financial has demonstrated the power of the arts to bring communities together and benefit the economy both in New Hampshire and nationally. The Lincoln Financial Foundation believes access to the arts should be available for everyone regardless of age, economic situation, ability, and ethnicity. The foundation supports arts education and access to cultural activities that help students succeed.
MacDowell in the Schools and Medal Day are part of a year-round engagement program connecting The MacDowell Colony with communities in the Monadnock region. MacDowell in the Schools brings the excitement of the creative process into classrooms by enlisting artists-in-residence to present work and workshops to some 1,200 K-12 and college students each year. One of New Hampshire’s largest free public arts events, Medal Day is MacDowell’s annual open house, bringing national figures in the arts to the Monadnock region and opening doors for visitors from across the Northeast to unique creative experiences in the 32 studios at the Colony.
“If any writer could be called our nation’s conscience, that writer would be Toni Morrison,” said best-selling author Dave Eggers, chair of the Edward MacDowell Medal Selection Panel, and editor and founder of the literary publishing house McSweeney’s. “And though she was recognized with the Nobel Prize in 1993, since then she has continued to produce novels of astonishing power and beauty. She once said, ‘If you can’t find the book you want to read, you must write it,’ and that urgency is evident in every line and every book that bears her name.”
The Medal Day Ceremony will take place on Sunday, August 14, 2016, beginning at 12:15 p.m. on the MacDowell Colony grounds at 100 High Street in Peterborough, New Hampshire. It is the one day each year the Colony is open to the public. Guests can enjoy picnic lunches on Colony grounds by pre-ordering or bringing their own. Open studios hosted by MacDowell artists-in-residence begin at 2 p.m. and end at 5 p.m.
