Mono Arts Council
MAC provides visual and performing arts education for K-12 students in school, after school, and during the summer. We ensure every student in Mono County has access to this VITAL part of their education. Arts education increases test scores and attendance. Making art supports good mental health and provides opportunities for social-emotional learning. Our adult programs, including Art & Wine, the gallery, and the Mammoth Lakes Arts on the 4th Festival help us raise money and awareness for arts education and give local artists a place to showcase their talents.
Join Mono Arts Council in celebrating 30 years as a non-profit! MAC gained non-profit status on June 5th, 1992. For the past 30 years we have provided arts education in Mono County Schools, hosted festivals during the summer, opened our Gallery + Community Arts Center to showcase local and regional artists, and started our popular Art & Wine program. Our small, but mighty, non-profit continues to grow and provide more arts for Mono County each year. Just in 2021, we added two new arts education programs, two new after-school programs, and a community art program for the residents of Bridgeport. We have big plans for 2022-2023, including a music program for the students of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District, more community arts programs, arts scholarships, and micro festivals throughout the County.
We need YOUR help to achieve these goals!
Celebrating 30 years!
What We Do
Arts Education
Our arts education programs are the core of our mission. Mono Arts Council partners with the Mono County Office of Education, the Mammoth Unified School District, and the Easterm Sierra Unified School District to fill the gaps in arts education. We provide highly skilled Teaching Artists and art supplies for a variety of programs from Kindergarten - 8th grade.
Last month, we launched what will hopefully be an annual program called the Cultural Arts Program. We brought back visiting artists Dandha da Hora and Papiba Godinho, from the Santa Cruz based band Samba Dá.
We launched the program in our smaller district, the Eastern Sierra Unified School District, where over 250 students in grades Kindergarten - 8th grade participated in this richly interactive program, where each school spent a week learning about Brazilian Culture through Capoeira, Song, Dance, Art, and Percussion. Each school had about 3-4 hours of rehearsal/learning time throughout the week for each group of students,
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and the end result was a fantastic assembly performance by each group at the end of the week. Each student decorated their own "Bucket Drum" in honor of the upcoming Carnival in Brazil, which they were able to keep and take home.
We would like to thank Chris Lizza, Dave Marquart & Connie Henderson, the Andruss Motel, and Mono County for their contributions that made this program possible.
In the Gallery
Featured Artist
SUSI BAINS
Susi Bains grew up in a family of artists surrounded by painters, woodworkers & textile artists, where art was always supported and encouraged; creating and designing were just a natural part of life. For Susi, glass is the ultimate dichotomy between strength and fragility. It is strong enough to withstand years of severe weather, yet can shatter in an instant if tapped in just the wrong way. Building stained glass ‘windows’ is much like creating and building a puzzle. Individual pieces are chosen for their color and pattern, and then joined together to create a unified scene. Susi paints with glass instead of oils or watercolors and her colorful work is inspired by nature with a little bit of whimsy and fantasy thrown in to remind us that nothing is ever as it seems.
