Mission Statement
To educate all students in a supportive, nurturing and challenging environment by providing them with the skills, knowledge and opportunities for expression in art, music drama and dance that enable them to participate actively as consumers and makers of the arts in a diverse global community.
K-12 Department Learning Goals
- Creating: Students will learn to use the symbolic languages, structures, materials and techniques of the four arts disciplines (music, visual art, drama and dance) to create works of art.
- Performing: Students will apply skills in singing, reading music, playing instruments, acting, directing, dancing and exhibition (visual art) to interpret and share artwork that already exists, including their own.
- Perceiving and Responding: Students will demonstrate their ability to critically respond with understanding when they describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate their own artwork and the artwork or others.
- Connections: Students will demonstrate understanding of their artistic heritage through investigation of the historical and cultural contexts of the arts, will demonstrate knowledge of the arts in their community, and apply knowledge of the arts in the study of other disciplines.
Guiding Beliefs
- An effective and challenging arts curriculum provides students with opportunities to perform and create in art, music, drama and dance; perceive and respond to each of the arts disciplines; understand the role of the arts in our heritage and cultures past and present, near and far; understand the nature of the arts, and make connections between the arts and other disciplines.
- Through education in the arts, students learn modes of personal expression; they imaginatively communicate and share ideas, approach the challenges of artistic expression with ingenuity, develop intellectual curiosity, and perceive the world around them in ways that are unique to the arts.
- All students can learn in and through the arts and are entitled to challenging and sequential curricula in grades K-12, taught during the regular school day by a highly qualified faculty in each of those disciplines. The arts curricula include general art and music in grades K-8, instrumental and choral music in grades 3-12, studio/performance based electives in grades 8-12 and non-performance based electives in grades 9-12.
- All students are entitled to opportunities during the school day to develop proficiency in at least two of the arts disciplines in grades K-8 and in at least one arts discipline over at least two years of study at the high school level.
- An effective program in the arts is supported by adequate resources, instructional time and a highly qualified faculty.
- The arts are most worthy of study for their intrinsic value, yet at the same time can enhance learning in other disciplines.
- Through education in the arts all students are provided with unique opportunities for personal growth and social development, and can engage with confidence and skill in the life of the broader school community.