PITTSBURGH – It’s “LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!” for WQED Film Academy’s (WFA) largest cohort yet! The upcoming summer session begins on Monday, June 26 and will include almost 40 students, 8 college interns, and 10 staff members. Included in the staff are teaching artists supported by a $30,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including WQED’s, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”
“We’re thrilled and honored to receive support from The National Endowment for the Arts. Seeing arts education valued and supported at a federal level is truly encouraging and reaffirms how important and life-changing this work is for so many young people,” said Mary Ann McBride-Tackett Director of Film Education at WQED.
WFA offers youth the ability to explore the world of digital media and film, develop their creativity, and get hands-on with industry equipment. WFA’s team of industry professional teaching artists are the core of the program who guide, mentor, and educate students. Teaching artists engage with local schools and community organizations to host field trips to WQED studios, teach workshops and/or semester-long classes in digital media arts, as well as providing professional development and technical consultation to enhance educators’ digital media skills, help them choose equipment or embed digital media production into existing curriculum.
The summer session teaching artists include Paul Johnson, Trisha Hosac, Edwin Huang, Jibril Washington, and Nathan Fullerton, plus teaching assistants Trey Norman and Mya Jackson. Their bios can be found on the WQED Film Academy website.
WQED’s project is among 1,130 projects across the country, totaling more than $31 million, that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2023 funding.
About WQED
WQED was an experiment in educational community-supported television that was the forerunner to PBS. Today, WQED is a multimedia powerhouse that is as much a part of Pittsburgh as the three rivers. WQED is WQED-TV (PBS); WQED World; WQED Create; WQED Showcase; WQED PBS KIDS Channel; Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; the Pittsburgh Concert Channel at WQED-HD2 (89.3-2FM) and online; streaming and apps, and WQED Interactive.
WQED is a premier leader in broadcast and digital video production, producing socially relevant, historical, arts, entertainment and educational programming resources. WQED’s Learning Neighborhood model creates an education continuum dedicated to serving our youngest neighbors through Ready To Learn programming, while engaging elementary through high school students learning filmmaking and exploring employment opportunities through the WQED Film Academy.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the Arts Endowment supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. To learn more, visit arts.gov or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.