EAST PRAIRIE A GO-GETTER FOR THE ARTS

In 1990, the East Prairie School District was one of three districts in Missouri designated as a pilot site for The Arts as a Basic Program, a state initiative designed to help school districts develop arts programs as part of the core school curriculum.

The program, which provides $8,000 per year for three years, was a response to school districts cutting budgets at the expense of arts programs during the previous decade.

The Arts as a Basic Program accompanied East Prairie's federal designation as the state's only Rural Enterprise Community.

"We qualified because we are an under-served, remote area," says Rosalie LaPlant, an elementary school librarian and member of the East Prairie Committee for the Arts.

Ernest Feyler, an elementary school principal who has since moved away, and others created the East Prairie Committee for the Arts that same year to help foster the arts in the community.

Dancers, a ceramic artist, a storyteller and a visual artist were brought to town for month-long residencies through grants available in the program. The Imaginary Theatre, a touring arm of the St. Louis Repertory Theatre, has given performances, with more to come in December and next year.

A town hall meeting was held when the arts pilot program expired. The decision was to continue using Rural Enterprise Community funding to bring in artists.

"They felt it made a difference," said City Administrator Kathie Simpkins, a member of the arts committee.

More grants are available through a program called Reach for the Stars, which targets latchkey children with tutoring, recreation and enrichment activities.

When teen-agers graduate from East Prairie High School, those who don't start farming or go to work at the Noranda aluminum plant 20 miles down the road have a tendency to leave town. Developing the arts is seen as one way the town can help stop the exodus and help students develop their own abilities.

"We have some very talented students here who may not develop their talents otherwise," says Patricia Helms, an elementary school counselor who also is a member of the arts committee.

"Children learn better when they are more in tune to the opportunities available if they are exposed to art."

In 1998, a coalition composed of the East Prairie Committee for the Arts, the East Prairie R-2 Schools, and the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center applied for a grant from a national program called Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium. That grant brought storyteller David Alexander to town for three months.

"I don't know of a small town around here that does what we do for the arts," says LaPlant.