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Show An ambitious project is underway un-derway at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to make the facility's cultural resources available throughout the state. DIRECTING the program which is still in the idea stage, is Ann Day, newly named assistant curator of educational services at the University of Utah museum. "Right now I'm talking to a great many people in order to get opinions about what is needed. We must find out if schools and communities are eager to have museum materials and, if so, what kind. "ITS very important to get the right show for the right place," she says. Ms. Day, who has been on the job less than a month, is former education director of the Recreation and Arts Center in Waterloo, Iowa, where she was instrumental in developing nationally recognized programs in the visual and performing arts for public and parochial schools. MS. DAY'S plan is to prepare a "smorgasbord" for a variety of tastes. For instance, in-stance, she hopes to tailor part of the museum display to a particular class subject for visiting school groups. ANN DAY She also proposes to use museum "kits" for schools which would contain artifacts, ar-tifacts, authentic paintings, sculpture and "whatever will travel easily without harm." THE KITS would offer informational in-formational material for use in school instruction. Museum staff members, or perhaps a U faculty member, would accompany the kits to give classroom presentations. The museum also is designing pre-packaged traveling exhibits which could be sent communities along with instructions for assembly and display. The packages might include a complete art exhibit with 15-20 paintings or a "sampler" with a smattering of what is available at the museum. "THE SECRET is to discover dis-cover new methods to bring the community and school publics together with the immense im-mense and fascinating resources of this museum," the new curator emphasizes. Ms. Day currently is vice chairperson of the Federal-State Federal-State Partnership Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. She also chairs the Endowment's subpanel on community development and is a member of the executive council of the National Assembly As-sembly of Community Arts Agencies. SHE WAS born on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Mal-ta, raised on the English Channel island of Jersey, and lived in England before graduating from a Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts college. Her husband, a professor of American literature in Iowa, is currently on sabbatical leave to write a biography of novelist Vardis Fisher. |