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Through the creativity of the arts — activities such as singing, dancing, acting or painting — students in the Lower Kuskokwim School District will soon embark on an educational adventure to celebrate Alaska's 50 years of statehood and learn about their region and the people in it, past and present.

"Students Celebrating Statehood: Tundra Style/Yupiulleg Nutemllarmek" is the name of the LKSD project spearheaded by Bev Williams, the district's Literacy Through the Arts Project director.

"Tundra Style" was recently awarded a $70,000 Alaska Statehood Experience grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation.

"We've been seeing some real growth (from the students) as little performers," Williams said. "With this grant, we have the opportunity to look at statehood and reflect on it from over the last 50 years.

"We're going to have the students look at contributions (to the state) from a Yup'ik perspective."

The "Tundra Style" project is one of 28 the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation gave $921,284 to explore the history of Alaska statehood.

Williams said LKSD students from 10 targeted schools — Akiuk, Atmautluak, Ayaprun Elitnaurvik, Eek, Goodnews Bay, Kwigillingok, Mikelnguut Elitnaurvik, Napaskiak, Newtok and Tununak — will participate.

Those schools take part in an arts literacy project funded by the Alaska Native Education Program at the U.S. Department of Education.

Over the last two years, teachers and site administrators have been trained to integrate the arts across the curriculum to increase student motivation, attendance and literacy, particularly in writing, and to give students arts experiences in places with no visual art or music specialists.

Williams, who works out of Akiuk Memorial School in Kasigluk, said she marvels at watching students change in front of her eyes as they get more involved in artistic endeavors.

"Kids find something within themselves that allows them to become performers," Williams said. "They lose that self-consciousness to get out in front of people in public."

The "Tundra Style" students will work with guest teaching artists, elders, culture bearers and teachers to investigate what the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta was like before and after statehood. In the grant proposal, Williams wrote that students would reflect on their culture, identity, language and environment.

At the same time, they'll study important milestones in state history and will compare what was happening in their region at those same times. Students will conduct research in old- and new-school ways, conducting interviews with elders as well as using Internet and library resources.

Each school then develops, rehearses and produces performances or visual art creations that showcase what the students learned. Examples could include a new Eskimo dance that tells the story of a historical milestone, recreating a piece of Alaska artwork and acting out a scene in front of it or writing a new song with lyrics that tell a story from the Y-K Delta.

The community from each school will be invited to watch each performance or art piece locally. Eventually, small groups of students from the schools will be chosen to perform in a large, combined-group show in Bethel sometime in the spring, most likely in April.

The grand performance in Bethel is a project highlight for Williams.

"It's probably the part I find most appealing about the (Alaska Statehood Experience) grant," she said. "The money will allow us to bring the kids together.

"We're always able to bring students together for athletic events, but there never seems to be money available to bring kids from our villages together for an arts event."

The Bethel performance will be filmed is expected to be broadcast on Alaska public television.

Williams used excerpts from Anne Fienup-Riordan's book "Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival" throughout her project proposal.

In the final summary, she quotes the book to reflect the genesis of the "Tundra Style" project.

"Elders often remark on the changing times, and most are thankful for the improved living conditions, warm homes and easier access to food. Looking back wistfully to their past, however, they regret the decline of sharing," the quote reads.

Williams summed up the project this way:

"To share and celebrate what they have learned in a year-long project, 1,230 students from 10 (LKSD) sites will perform dances, music and theater and present visual art depicting life on the Y-K Delta before and after statehood alongside milestones in Alaska history to village audiences.

A smaller group of 60 of them will then participate in a final performance in Bethel, illustrating a "looking out and looking in," helping students and communities reflect on how they are connected to each other and fellow Alaskans. This unique statehood presentation will be a central feature of the 2009 Arts and Academic Fair in Bethel, to which everyone is invited."

Williams said "Tundra Style" meetings will begin later this month when educators and artists get together to map out the game plan. Teachers and art liaisons will start working with the students in October.

"The (guest) artists will get in there, and we'll hit the ground running," Williams said.