The arts develop students’ creative abilities and foster aesthetic appreciation.• The arts create connections across academic disciplines.• The arts encourage risk-taking and creative thinking.• The arts engage students’ interest and create a sense of community in schools.• The arts offer career opportunities for young people.• The arts provide another language through which students can express

themselves.

Arts education brings corollary benefits:• Arts education offers an entry point for reaching diverse learners.• Arts education enriches student learning in all areas of study.• Arts education increases parental involvement in their children’s school activities.• Arts education increases graduation rates.• Arts education empowers students through self-exploration.

Benefits of the Arts

Intelligence and thinking ability are far more complex than what is chosen to measure on standardized tests. Eight ``studio habits of mind" that arts classes teach; each of these stand out from testable skills taught elsewhere in school.

• Expression• Making Clear Connections between schoolwork & the world outside the

classroom• Persistence• Observing• Envisioning• Innovating through exploration• Reflective self-evaluation• Development of Artistic Craft

Winner, Ellen & Hetland, Lois “Art for Our Sake” www.boston.com web. 02 Sept. 2007

Eight Essential Mind Skills from the Arts

EXPRESSION: Students were urged to move beyond technical skill to create works rich in emotion, atmosphere, and their own personal voice or vision.

Diana Greene led Literacy through photography workshops for 4th graders called “My Inside/Outside Self,” in which students made self portraits and ‐write a narrative describing who they are on the inside and out.

MAKING CLEAR CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SCHOOLWORK AND THE WORLD OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM: Students are taught to see their projects as part of the larger world, past and present.

Artist Joyce Teta had students study contemporary art exhibitions before designing their own. In this way students could see the parallels between their art and professional work.

PERSISTENCE: Students worked on projects over sustained periods of time and were expected to find meaningful problems and persevere through frustration.

Students manipulated film strips - unexposed and exposed - with ink, marker and distressed it to create films that were later spliced together and projected. Each class made their own film and were given the opportunity to view and title. The final product was screened at SECCA during Community Day.

Take the Lead dance instructors taught fifth-grade students a variety of dances over a four-week period, including the samba, the merengue, the two-step and the waltz.

OBSERVATION: Visual arts students are trained to LOOK, a task far more complex than one might think. Seeing is framed by expectation, and expectation often gets in the way of perceiving the world accurately.

Giannini Brass presents Under the Big Top which integrates musical performance with the magic of the circus. After the performance, students learn about each instrument’s shape, sound, and history.

ENVISIONING - forming mental images internally and using them to guide actions and solve problems.

Like observing, envisioning is a skill with payoffs far beyond the art world. Visualization is essential to problem-solving in math and science, but art classes are where this skill is most directly and intensively taught.

Working with Piedmont Craftsman artists create an animal of their choice using recycled bags, string and fabric. Students study then envision all of the animal’s characteristics, while learning the technical side of fine craft, and appreciation for artwork made by hand.

INNOVATION is a central skill in art classes. Art classes place a high value on breaking the mold. Teachers encourage students to innovate through exploration - to experiment, take risks, and try different things and see what can be learned.

Filmmaker Leslie Hill teaches students to combine the visual and auditory arts with writing, observing conceptualizing, creating, discriminating and using high-level critical thinking.

REFLECTIVE SELF-EVALUATION- Students are asked to step back, analyze, judge, and sometimes reconceive their projects entirely.

Students learn about and create mosaics. Patterns are first imagined, then drawn, while analyzing for materials and space, colors are chosen, pieces are manipulated to create a final project.

CREATION OF ARTISTIC CRAFT- creating something beautiful or thought-provoking

Mona Wu teaches the art of woodcuts, where a picture is drawn, carved out of wood (embossed), rolled with paint, and transferred to paper or fabric.

Please Help Your School Reach its Arts Council Fundraising Goal!

Your contribution to the Arts Council brings hands-on arts experiences to thousands of students each year.

The Arts in Education Grant connects artists and arts organizations with elementary, middle, and high school students by funding programs designed to awaken their intellectual and creative curiosity.

Thank you for all that you do for the children in our community.

Those who have learned the lessons of the arts - how to see new patterns, how to learn from mistakes, and how to envision solutions - are the ones likely to come up with the novel answers needed most for the future.

You just donated (at least) $10 to the Arts Council…

YOU!

You could be going to Disney World!

Disney Trip Compliments of Hanesbrands:• Five day park-hopper pass for a family of four• $1000 in Travelers Checks to be used for Hotel or

Travel

Other Prizes:• Massages • Restaurant gift certificates• Teacher resources from Carson-Dellosa• Performance Tickets