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State of the Arts

Educators have long recognized the value of music, art, drama and writing for students’ creative development and academic success. This series highlights the many enriching ways students are experiencing the arts.

The Best of Jazz

State of the Arts Dianne Carroll Burdick
Trumpeter Marcus Printup brought the jazzy notes of Duke Ellington to Byron Center High School recently, where he spent a full school day with the jazz band rehearsing classics...

Looping through layers of sound with a cool new pedal

State of the Arts Morgan Jarema
A looper pedal and related equipment for the high school orchestras were purchased through a grant from the Lowell Education Foundation...

A really big yellow chair gets new colors

State of the Arts Hannah Lentz
Students in Tonya Woods’ independent study class will be decorating the 'Big Yellow Chair' for the village of Middleville throughout the month of March...

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 School News Network
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...
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