In what is billed as a merger, the 20-year-old All-of-Us Express Children’s Theatre (AECT) has moved under the umbrella of the East Lansing Department of Parks, Recreation & Arts. The transition boosts the city's growing arts image and provides some national bragging rights.
“Since we are a City of the Arts, it seems only fitting that children
in our region should now receive their dramatic art beginnings in East
Lansing,” says Diane Goddeeris, mayor pro tem.
East Lansing already has a city-sponsored arts commission that manages an art gallery, gives arts grant and makes major purchase awards for public sculpture. It hosts an annual outdoor art festival drawing thousands, as well as the Great Lakes Folk Festival. It funds (SCENE) MetroSpace, an alternative art and performance space. It is home to the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts on the Michigan 
State University (MSU) campus, and will soon claim the $26 million Broad Art Museum.
“As a mother of three children who all went through the program, I can say with confidence that this organization truly does bring kids together at an early age to not only put on community plays, but to learn about all the pieces that go into creating a theatrical production," says Goddeeris. "The theater is for the children, by the children, bringing artistic enrichment and an understanding of performing arts to our region’s youth.”
Under the new merger agreement, all AECT workshops, classes, activities and productions will be hosted at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center at 819 Abbott Rd.
The city will retain the AECT’s one regular part-time artistic director position, currently held by Miranda Hartmann. Meanwhile, the AECT board will continue to exist as a tax-exempt fundraising organization.
Source: City of East Lansing
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
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