The Leland Cultural Arts Center kicked off a new program in October called, “Explore the Arts.”  The program was aimed at area students aged 10 to 13 and was offered as 4, 2-hour sessions, one day a week.

Students got to study drawing and sketching on Monday, photography on Tuesday, Ceramics on Wednesday and journalism on Thursday.   Five area students signed up for the program.

Gerald Decker, Publisher, Cape Fear Voices and Teen Scene, said, “Writing is an art and an important one, that’s why we wanted to be part of this new program.  If we can teach our students methodology and technique, we have helped them develop a skill that will last a lifetime.”

The students wrote and presented an original story and then listened to some of the published works of area teens from a recent  issue of Teen Scene.  They identified descriptive phrases from those works and re-wrote their stories to add colorful details and include the “Five W’s.”  After that, they each illustrated their stories, because as Gerald says, “Writing is storytelling—drawing a picture with words.”