The Claremont Museum of Art (CMA), which was forced to shut down in December after losing its location at the Packing House in the Village, is planning an innovative arts education program entitled ArtStart Claremont. Museum officials hope that the CMA will reopen in the coming years.

The CMA has a brief and troubled history. When it opened in early 2007, the museum featured a variety of local artists. Due to financial struggles that were announced to the public in October 2009, the museum laid off all employees and closed its gift shop.

The city of Claremont then opted to fund the salary of one worker at the museum, and, in November, the City Council granted funds to the museum to help it stay open for the rest of the year. After being unable to raise adequate additional funds, the museum closed its doors on Dec. 27.

While the museum has no fixed gallery space, it still has a permanent collection of artwork. The Board of Trustees is in the process of finding a new location.“We have our collection carefully stored and hope to find a new home in the next year, or certainly a year and a half,” said Board President Sandy Baldonado.

While it searches for a new space, the museum will function as a “Museum Without Walls,” and establish the arts education program —which would involve elementary, high school and college students—as a central part of its operations. A pilot program is expected for the 2010-11 school year.

“Since the Museum no longer exists as a brick-and-mortar operation, our job is to create education programming for the district for the use of the community,” said Rich Deely, an Education Adviser to the museum’s trustees. “It will take advantage of what’s already being offered but isn’t actually being accessed by a lot of people who live here.”

The museum aims to highlight the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, private galleries and exhibitions at the Colleges themselves.

College students who would like to get involved in the program would be trained by project coordinators, including Deely, as well as by local artists and curators. They would then work with younger students.

“Our hope is to train a group of teenagers with college-age mentors,” Deely said. “We eventually hope to have all the primary schools in Claremont being served by students who would teach arts appreciation using the already-existing museum exhibitions that are at the Colleges and elsewhere...We’re looking at becoming community curators.”

Deely emphasized that the program is a collaborative effort, and is dependent on a partnership with students and other community members.“The Museum welcomes further input from the students of the Claremont Colleges as we continue our efforts to make sure that the central students-teaching-students formula remains the cornerstone of this proposal,” Deely said.

In March, Deely met with six students from the Claremont Colleges at Scripps’ Motley Coffehouse to discuss the project.

“We love the idea of being part of a sort of a cultural revolution to get students more involved with museums,” said Courtney Dern CM ’10, who attended the initial meeting.

The project aims to become a long-term part of the museum and will expand to more schools in the Claremont Unified School District.“The CMA is still very much in the planning stages of this project, and that the plan is contingent on locating seed funding for the pilot year,” Deely said.

The CMA may also convert into a mobile museum, which will allow its collection to be displayed without a permanent location.

“Where we would hang our hat, that would be Claremont Museum of Art programming,” Deely said. “It might happen at Scripps for one semester and at Pomona College Museum of Art for another semester; it could even be happening at the same time at both locations.”

Public reaction to the reorganization has been positive. The museum’s collections were on display and future plans were discussed during the CMA’s Feb. 27 event, entitled “Artful Evening.”

“It was very well attended and I think that people are enthusiastic about trying to keep this going,” Baldonado said.

An essential component to the program’s success is funding, Deely said. The museum is soliciting funds from various sources, including private donors.

Despite the museum’s difficult past, the parties involved are confident that the upcoming project will be successful.

“Rich [Deely] has a very positive yet realistic vision for this project and I’m confident that it will be a success,” said Dern.

By getting local schools and the Claremont Colleges involved in the arts program, the museum’s supporters hope to create a wide network of support.“I’m very optimistic that we’re going to be able to pull ourselves together and come back even stronger,” Baldonado said.