Arts initiatives in the Pioneer Valley have been bolstered by two substantial grants awarded to the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and the Enchanted Circle Theater of Northampton. Both institutions focus on learning about and learning through the arts.

With $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Mount Holyoke Museum plans to digitize its extensive collection within a two-year period. The funding won't bring any new acquisitions to the museum, but it will broaden access to its resources. Through the prospective photograph and research efforts, students, faculty and the public at large will eventually find the museum's array of art work, most notably its paper and antiquities collections, always available.

The Enchanted Circle Theater, an educational theater company that familiarizes children with the many components of performing arts, will team up with the Northampton public schools through the Creative Classrooms Initiative. The Northampton Education Foundation has given the Circle Theater $15,000 to launch the collaboration, which will incorporate the stage into the academic arena. As studies have shown involvement in the arts to be positively correlated with intelligence, the CCI should foster the participants' intellectual growth. The promoters of CCI believe that students' personal, social, and emotional development will also be enhanced by this innovative curriculum.