The mission of the Belmont Public Schools Department of Fine and Performing Arts is to educate all students in a supportive, nurturing and challenging environment by providing them with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities for expression in art, music, drama and dance that enable them to participate actively as consumers and makers of the arts in a diverse global community.

Guiding Beliefs

• An effective and challenging arts curriculum provides students with opportunities to perform and create in art, music, drama and dance; perceive and respond to each of the arts disciplines; understand the role of the arts in our heritage and cultures past and present, near and far; understand the nature of the arts, and make connections between the arts and other disciplines.

• Through education in the arts, students learn modes of personal expression; they imaginatively communicate and share ideas, approach the challenges of artistic expression with ingenuity, develop intellectual curiosity, and perceive the world around them in ways that are unique to the arts.

• All students can learn in and through the arts and are entitled to challenging and sequential curricula in grades K-12, taught during the regular school day by a highly qualified faculty in each of those disciplines. The arts curricula include general art and music in grades K-8, instrumental and choral music in grades 3-12, and studio/performance based electives in grades 8-12 and non-performance based electives in grades 9-12.

• All students are entitled to opportunities during the school day to develop proficiency in at least two of the arts disciplines in grades K-8 and in at least one arts discipline over at least two years of study at the high school level.

• An effective program in the arts is supported by adequate resources, instructional time and a highly qualified faculty.

• The arts are most worthy of study for their intrinsic value, yet at the same time can enhance learning in other disciplines.

• Through education in the arts all students are provided with unique opportunities for personal growth and social development, and can engage with confidence and skill in the life of the broader school community.

The Belmont Public Schools is an educational community that engages students in comprehensive and challenging opportunities in the four arts disciplines- music, art, drama and dance. The school district provides essential resources including a highly qualified faculty, instructional time during the school day, instructional materials, equipment and appropriate facilities. It is a place where students are highly encouraged to develop their capacities in the arts. Upon graduation they are fully prepared to live in and contribute to a diverse global community in which the arts continue to play a vital role in the creating of cultures and the building of civilizations – where the arts are a catalyst for human expression and provide balance in an increasingly technological society.

Graduates of the Belmont Public Schools understand the rich and diverse ways in which the arts play a critical role in the lives of all people. They recognize the powerful effect that the arts have on individuals and societies. They have deep understanding of how the arts have shaped cultures and how cultures use the arts to tell the human story, and record and reconcile their existence. As individuals they have knowledge and skills in each of the arts disciplines, and are proficient in at least one of them. They imaginatively and creatively use their knowledge and skills with confidence to express human emotions, such as joy, hope, or sadness, and can interpret them through song, picture, language, or dance. They frequently use the arts in communal celebration and ritual, or as a means of personal expression and reflection. They understand the range and depth of the human imagination. As informed consumers of the arts they can contribute to and participate in the life of their community, whether at work or during leisure time. If they choose to, they have the knowledge and skills to pursue one of the arts disciplines as their life’s work. As a result of their education in the arts, graduates of the Belmont Public Schools are life-long learners who, as individuals, understand their full potential for personal growth.

K-12 Department Learning Goals

1. Creating: Students will learn to use the symbolic languages, structures, materials and techniques of the four arts disciplines (music, visual art, drama and dance) to create works of art.

2. Performing: Students will apply skills in singing, reading music, playing instruments, acting, directing, dancing and exhibition (visual art) to interpret and share artwork that already exists, including their own.

3. Perceiving and Responding: Students will demonstrate their ability to critically respond with understanding when they describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate their own artwork and the artwork or others.

4. Connections: Students will demonstrate understanding of their artistic heritage through investigation of the historical and cultural contexts of the arts, will demonstrate knowledge of the arts in their community, and apply knowledge of the arts in the study of other disciplines.

• Learning Benchmarks Visual Art K-8 and Music

• BHS Program of Studies