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Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) is serious about community building. A new pilot program demonstrates this commitment with a fun way to bring the concept of communities into elementary school classrooms. MSHDA has announced a new student art contest focusing on the vision of a modern community. The authority has partnered with
Bingham Elementary to kick off their pilot program, the MSHDA Community Art Contest.
“[Bingham] was a great fit to focus on community,” says Jeff Dutka, community affairs manager for MSHDA. “We are both members of the same community on the Michigan Avenue Corridor. What better way to get some fun submissions from students, and also allow them to work what it means to be a part of a community into their curriculums?”
The MSHDA Community Art Contest will ask children to illustrate the variety of buildings that make up their neighborhoods, and teach them to recognize the importance of community. Though the initial year will be a partnership with only Bingham Elementary, MSHDA has its eyes set on a much larger goal.
“We’re still working out some of the bugs on how we’ll launch it at a statewide level,” says Dutka. “We have to keep in mind that it’s quite a big leap, but that is our big, audacious goal.”
Three age groups from kindergarten through fifth grade will participate in the program, and three winners will be selected from each group. The winning artwork will be used in a collage of the Michigan Avenue corridor to be displayed first at the Building Michigan Communities Conference in April and then at the MSHDA building.
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