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HomeArts and AcademicsState of the Arts

State of the Arts

Educators have long recognized the value of music, art, drama and writing for students’ creative development and academic success. Yet the arts remain squeezed by tight budgets and test-driven performance standards. This series highlights efforts to protect and promote school arts programs.

An explorer, a tropical island, a pineapple

State of the Arts Erin Albanese
The state-wide contest is in its eighth year...

WMCAT students earn high honors in art competition

Grand Rapids Charles Honey
Twenty-one GRPS students won 80 awards for photography and ceramics in the 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards regional competition...

Dance power: helping girls ’empower themselves and be themselves’

Rockford Charles Honey
EmpowHER ½ Hour meets once a week during recess to let young girls feel their strength through the joy of dance...

Musicians take on anything but classical

Kentwood Erin Albanese
Forty-four students become immersed each morning in music styles ranging from bluegrass to alternative rock in the Anything But Classical Orchestra...

Artist speaks out against hate in competition

Cedar Springs Cris Greer
Four art students won top honors out of 127 competitors at the third-annual Cedar Springs High School Art Competition...

Students supplement learning with ballet, clay creatures & Billie Holiday

Grand Rapids Phil de Haan
A grant-funded partnership between Brookside Elementary and the Salvation Army Kroc Center sees third, fourth and fifth grade students make a trek twice a week through their backyard for classes in ballet, clay and jazz...

Third graders learn to listen — with help from drums, other noisemakers

Comstock Park James Harger
Students from schools throughout West Michigan get introduced to the big world of percussion instruments through presentations by Bill Vits, principal percussionist for the Grand Rapids Symphony...

‘Doing art well is what matters’

Kent City Janice Holst
A young artist took home a national award and has pledged to put his winnings toward his family’s future home...

Creating a picture of community and kindness

Rockford Charles Honey
Students’ drawings were incorporated by artist Mary Bent-Buist into a mural expressing a moving message: 'One kind word can change someone’s entire story'...

Fourth graders from across city cross lines with pictures on ‘Flexible Fence’

Arts and Academics Charles Honey
A collaboration of GRPS, artist Eliza Fernand, ArtPrize and PNC Bank, the 6-foot-high 'Flexible Fence' features more than 1,000 pictures by fourth graders from 26 schools...

Thanks to dedicated artists, city snowplows will be hard to miss

East Grand Rapids Morgan Jarema
Over the past couple weeks, art teachers led third and fourth graders from all three elementary schools in decorating a trio of city snowplow blades...

SmartArt competition winner finds inspiration in art, science classes

Grand Rapids Phil de Haan
C.A. Frost Environmental Science Academy junior Cindy Mazariegos-Barrios was so sure she wasn't going to win the 2019 SmartArt competition, she forgot to mention the big event where they announced the winner to her parents. Oops...

Not one, but two local high school bands to play Detroit Jazz Fest

State of the Arts Charles Honey
The pair of West Michigan jazz bands will be two of just six high school ensembles to play at the internationally renowned four-day festival, in its 40th year...

Students learn skills the fun way: making music

Lowell Morgan Jarema
A group of Alto Elementary students took part in 10 one-hour sessions with a music therapist at the Franciscan Life Process Center, thanks to a grant from the Lowell Education Foundation...

Young actor headed to Big Apple stage

Rockford Charles Honey
Eric Liu qualified for a national musical theater competition by being named Best Leading Actor in the state of Michigan at the Sutton Foster Ovation Awards at the Wharton Center in East Lansing...

‘From absolutely nothing to this full production’

State of the Arts Erin Albanese
It was three months before the spring play. There was no script and no plot, just the shadow of personalities students would soon embody as their own creations...
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School News Network reports on the 20 public school districts in Kent County, which enroll more than 90,000 students. Founded in 2013, we are an editorially independent news site funded by Kent ISD, local districts and community sponsors, and powered by an experienced team of reporters, editors and photojournalists. We specialize in covering classroom teaching and learning, analyzing the many issues that enhance or discourage student success, and highlighting the education magic that happens each day in our public schools.

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