“Keep trying!” art teachers and mentors say to students. “Maybe there’s a spotlight waiting for you.”

Dedication is needed, yes, but the technique must be learned. And. at last, according to Rose Munford of Cheaha Creative Arts, Inc. there is an opportunity to learn performing and visual arts techniques for every student of varying economic levels in Calhoun County.

Dancing lessons coordinated by Robin Bauer of Jacksonville, will be taught by Scott Marsett and Raphael Graves, the instructor for the Orchestral Strings Program is Diane K. Chong of Jacksonville, and Fundamentals of Drawing will be taught by Cheryl Cameron of Anniston. The classes will be in the Governor Thomas Kilby House on Anniston High School property on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. For the strings program, the fee is $25 each month. Violin, cello, viola and oboe will be taught with five violins donated for students’ participation by the Howard Core Company. For the art and dance lessons, the fee is $20 monthly.

The Anniston High Music Department is also involved, represented by Reuben Mitchell, in the strings program.

Registration for the program is scheduled for Sept. 2 in the Anniston High Mall Area from 3:30 to 6 p.m. The ages for the dance classes are eight years and up, for visual arts, six years and up, and for the strings lessons, eight years and up. Five students will be selected to use the donated violins.

The program is being made possible by a $5,000 grant from R.D. Downing, District 1, Calhoun County Commission, according to Munford, the program manager for the after-school opportunity. Fundraisers will be held for the continuation of the Kilby House, “which will be a pride in our area,” she said, listing the accomplishments of the Alabama governor. The home was built in 1914. Hopefully, a grant from the state arts council will be forthcoming, she said.

Students can look up to some important artists in Alabama who have successful careers. The Lamb Family Ensemble, a group from Tuscaloosa plays throughout the Southeast and is noted for playing strings medleys in churches and for other events all year around. The Etowah Youth Orchestra, based in Gadsden, has won many prestigious awards and has played at Carnegie Hall and more recently in Costa Rica. Alabama has played a central role in the development of fiddling and Appalachian music as well as blues and country. And popular singer Nat King Cole was an Alabamian.

And in visual art, the 50th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee of Monroeville, inspired an exhibit by 37 artists from this state to put their works that have a relationship to the novel on view at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute last Spring. It was sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Truman Capote, writer of “In Cold Blood” and other novels and short stories, was raised in Monroeville while he lived with relatives. His friendship with Lee is well known to his readers, In fact, the character “Dill” in “Mockingbird” was patterned after Capote’s life, according to Internet sources.

For more information on the after-school arts program, call Munford at 256 847-4405.