SURA Arts Academy

Winner, 2008 Coming Up Taller Award

The Arab American National Museum's SURA Arts Academy is a free, diversity-themed digital photography instruction program for 6th through 9th grade students in southwest Detroit. SURA is an Arabic word for photograph.

SURA student photographers are given the use of a digital camera and instruction from students at the acclaimed College for Creative Studies in Detroit. AANM educators lead the weekly sessions, which include basic photography principles, field trips (free transportation provided) and discussions on issues of identity and community. 

Every fall, SURA student photographers show their work just as professionals do, in an exhibition at the Arab American National Museum. Click HERE to view past SURA images.

In November 2008, SURA Arts Academy was one of just 15 programs nationwide to receive the prestigious Coming Up Taller Award from the President's Council on the Arts and the Humanities, honoring the best arts- and humanities-based youth after-school programs in the United States.

SURA Arts Academy operates on the academic calendar, with fall and spring semesters and a summer camp. Sessions during the school year are held weekly, on Tuesdays from 4:10-6:30 p.m., at OW Holmes School, 4833 Ogden St., Detroit. No more than 30 students are admitted per semester and no more that 45 for the summer camp.

Questions about SURA Arts Academy may be directed to AANM Educator Lindsay Robillard at 313.624.0210 or HERE.

 

SURA Arts Academy is funded in part by the Skillman Foundation and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Past funding has come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of State.

 

Forms:

SURA Arts Academy Registration
Camera Use Agreement

Flyers:

2011 SURA Arts Academy (English)
2011 SURA Arts Academy (Spanish)
2011 SURA Arts Academy (Arabic)