A new summer arts camp for underprivileged children ages 10 to 16 is headed to the Southern Cultural Heritage Center, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“This program is really going to bring a new aspect to what we currently offer,” said SCHC Executive Director Annette Kirklin. “We’re also trying to reach out to a different age range with this.”

Called Spectrum, the five-week, afternoon arts camp in June will include a wide range of courses — creative writing, photography, drama, music, choir, drawing and painting. All will be made available to 60 children each week, and everything will be free. A number of exhibits and performances are planned in July and August 2011 following the courses.

Kirklin said she will meet with local artists, instructors and arts associations in the coming weeks to form partnerships and firm up the complete Spectrum schedule. Registration information for parents will be announced later.

The goal of Spectrum is to provide arts opportunities to low-income families, and it is the first free summer arts program of its kind to be offered by the center.

Both the Multi-Cultural Arts Camp for children ages 6 to 12 and the Jump Start Art summer program for preschool children offered by the SCHC have registration fees. They will be back next summer, Kirklin said, and will not overlap with the Spectrum schedule.

The SCHC is required to match the NEA grant with $10,000, and Kirklin said she hopes to provide most of it with volunteer instructors and materials. She’s asking anyone interested in helping to contact her at 601-631-2997.

“I can’t express how excited I am about this, and I hope the community will get excited about it, too,” she said. “We’re going to need their support.”

Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the NEA is the nation’s largest annual contributor to arts programming in all 50 states. In its 45 years in existence, the NEA has awarded more than 130,000 grants totaling more than $4 billion.