The National Aquarium in Baltimore’s Aquarium on Wheels (AOW) youth program has earned national recognition as one of 17 select recipients of the 2004 Coming Up Taller Award, presented by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Aquarium on Wheels, a year-long after-school enrichment and job-training program, uses theater to teach science and conservation lessons to young audiences. This is the first time since the award’s inception that a Maryland-based program has been honored with the Coming Up Taller Award. Mrs. Laura Bush, Honorary Chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, will recognize each recipient at a December 14 ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Coming Up Taller is an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH). The President’s Committee partners with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities to administer the program, which was founded in 1998. The Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and support outstanding community arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America’s young people, and provide them with new learning opportunities and opportunities to contribute to their communities. The awards also highlight the contributions that historians, scholars, librarians and visual and performing artists make to families and communities by mentoring children. More than 300 nominations were received by the program in 2004.
Created by the Aquarium in 1996, each year AOW gives 16 students from Baltimore city and county public schools the opportunity to transform science-based information into a fun, educational play using costumes, live animals and artifacts. In partnership with the Enoch Pratt Library’s Summer Reading Program, AOW students perform their play more than 40 times at 21 branches of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library each summer. The students also gain professional experience during the program by serving as education aides, interacting with Aquarium visitors.
Participants in AOW are recruited from Baltimore City and county schools through a competitive selection process that involves an application, an essay, a letter of recommendation from a teacher, and an interview. A stipend for both training and work eliminates economic barriers and encourages underserved youth to apply. AOW also provides young people with positive role models from the fields of science and theater, stimulating their interest in higher education and careers. Each year, the National Aquarium in Baltimore reaches nearly 200,000 students, teachers and parents through field trips, on-site programs and tours, and traveling programs for schools.
The Coming Up Taller Awards are conferred annually by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Aquarium on Wheels will receive a $10,000 award in honor of its program.
