Hello Arts Enthusiasts!

Art is not a luxury.  It isn't.  The need to express oneself is a fundamental urge that predates all intellectual disciplines.  Unfortunately, art is treated as the foam on a latte, nice but hardly a deal breaker if it's absent.  What a tragedy.

Yes, I'm deliberately being hyperbolic.  Because it is my belief that art should be treated as an integral part of schools.  Both as a strategy for content area classrooms and as stand alone visual and performing arts programs (Edutopia: Deeper Learning), (Edutopia: Arts). Every subject area can be enriched by integrating art into the routine of instruction.  And many schools that are incorporating arts into classrooms are experiencing dramatic results at elementary, middle, and high school levels.  Too, research is supporting that students are experiencing cognitive gains when arts enhanced curriculum is used (NASAA Research)Nice when our own experience and common sense gets the blessing of academe.

It's really no surprise to us that kids' imaginations are stimulated by exciting films, plays, music or art.  They are no different from us in their love of story, sound, and visual stimulation.  There is not only a need for art enhanced classes (think how cool it would be for students to create a film as part of their science class--think TIP) but also a need for classes in JCCS that are stand alone arts programs.