Beaufort County School district is committed to providing excellence in arts education, and ensuring consistent opportunities for our students works to be showcased. Our first Annual Arts Showcase grew from those goals and the myriads of exceptional works created by our students. We wanted to provide our community with an opportunity to see our visual art student’s creative works, and time to enjoy our performing art students’ talents. The showcase was a true culmination of our exceptional year in the arts and all the hard work of our teachers and students.
As a component of our five-year arts program goals, we wanted to increase the number of students who are provided opportunities within the arts. Over the last four years we have offered greater opportunities for our students to audition for Gifted and Talented identification under the state of South Carolina guidelines. As our numbers of artistically gifted and talented students grow, so must the opportunities we provide for all our students. We hold district wide honors programs for dance, choir, theatre, band, and orchestra. This allows us to bring in world class clinicians to work intensively with our students and educators and provides culminating performances for our community. These district wide programs are in addition to the over 400 performances held throughout our district this year.
We have also worked to increase the opportunities for our visual art students to showcase their works. This year we had four community exhibits. One with our Kennedy Center Partner in Education at the Coastal Carolina Arts Center on Hilton Head , one at the Maritime Center, one for our high school artists in conjunction with the Coastal Discovery Museum, and of course our first Annual Arts Showcase.
We have also increased the arts focus within our schools and currently have seven schools designated as Arts in the Basic Curriculum Schools, two that are designated as arts integration schools and three high schools that are designated as Visual and Performing Arts schools. This demonstrates a concentrated effort of these schools to expand instructional options in the arts. One example is May River High School who earned their Visual and Performing Arts designation this year by increasing the arts course selections they offer students to 47 unique course opportunities.
The achievements of our arts students and teachers are truly countless in measure. To summarize some of our students and teachers’ achievements, we have had over 100 students win awards in the visual arts during this academic year. We have also had student work hanging in the Congressional Building in Washington DC and in Representative Nancy Mace’s office in Charleston. We have had our bands perform in parades and events across our state and as far away as Chicago. We have had dozens of our students join the all-Region Band, and all state orchestra. We have also had our students join the All-State Choir, the Southeast Region Choir and the National Honor Choir. We are also excited that 94 of our graduates this year are graduating with a South Carolina Seal of Distinction in Arts Specialization. These and so many additional achievements in Beaufort County can be directly traced back to our exceptional arts educators. Our teachers go above and beyond for our students! This dedication is evidenced in the 17 school grants that our schools have received from outside organizations based on their strong arts curriculums or their distinguished arts programs.
We have expanded our summer arts program, the Sea Island School for the Arts, by adding an additional location and doubling the number of students we serve. We have also opened that up to our high school students and look forward to two tremendous end of camp showcases this year. We are fortunate to be able to continue to grow our summer programs and are truly grateful for our arts educators who share their talents with our students during their summer break.
We also have STEAM camps through our Med Tech 7 program at two locations. These unique opportunities allow our students to use the arts in conjunction with science, math, technology and engineering.
Karen McKenzie, Director of Teaching & Learning
Beaufort County School District
843-322-2300
http://www.BeaufortSchools.net
CommunityComments@Beaufort.k12.sc.us
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June 2024
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