The world truly is a more beautiful, kinder, gentler place because of The Arts. The past two weeks have been a great celebration of our students as visual and performing artists, with a spectacular visual Art Exhibition on display in our Culture for the Arts foyer and exhibition space, as well as music concerts for our students in Grades 2-5 involving percussion, string instruments, and incredible vocals. After a three year gap in these large scale student performances, it has been a joy to watch our young performers shine as visual artists and musicians. 

Through these large scale exhibitions and performances, our students get to experience the joy of making art in community with others. They also have the opportunity to practice communicating ideas and emotions through visual media and music. They experience on stage what it means to be part of a very large team working towards a shared goal – to perform to an appreciative audience and to meaningfully contribute to something so much bigger than themselves. 

There are so many benefits to a strong foundation in arts education – beyond the joy of simply producing art, but for the mind, body and soul. In fact, I think that poet Dana Gioia expresses it best of all: 

“The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.”