Creativity and Academics: The Power of an Arts Education | Edutopia

By Neil Swapp

The arts are as important as academics, and they should be treated that way in school curriculum. This is what we believe and practice at New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA). While the positive impact of the arts on academic achievement is worthwhile in itself, it’s also the tip of the iceberg when looking at the whole child. Learning art goes beyond creating more successful students. We believe that it creates more successful human beings.

NMSA is built upon a dual arts and academic curriculum. Our teachers, students, and families all hold the belief that both arts and academics are equally important. Our goal is to prepare students for professional careers in the arts, while also equipping them with the skills and content knowledge necessary to succeed in college. From our personal experience (and research), here are five benefits of an arts education:

Source: Creativity and Academics: The Power of an Arts Education | Edutopia

A new Day begins for Benicia High School’s drama department – Benicia Herald

By Nick Sestanovich

As one player exits the stage of Benicia High School’s drama department, a new one emerges. Nathan Day is ready to demonstrate that the show must go on.Day is the new head of Benicia High’s theater department, and he is taking the reins from Christine Mani, who recently left Benicia High to become a full-time theater instructor at Solano Community College. Some might view this as a difficult transition for students who had worked with Mani the previous year, but Day says they have been very welcoming.

“There’s been a lot of enthusiasm,” he said. “Any time you’re going to a new campus, it’s difficult but when you’re taking over a program where you’ve got kids involved in that program for all four years and they’ve been a part of it and had this great teacher in Ms. Mani, there’s always that nervousness of ‘What’s their reaction going to be?’ But it’s been great. There was excitement, not fear and dread.”

Source: A new Day begins for Benicia High School’s drama department: Former Rodriguez High School drama teacher Nathan Day to run program

Student filmmakers hope for more wins at Benicia Film Festival – Daily Republic

By Amy Maginnis-Honey

Boundless Studios took seven awards at the Eye Light Film Festival in Vacaville earlier this spring.

One of the films, “Colours,” is featured this weekend at the annual Benicia Film Festival. Filmmakers Jonathan Stevens and Julie Durant will talk about the five-minute short.

The story, Stevens said, centers on teens who remain silent in their own home about life’s big issues. The character, played by CJ Corpus, finds life’s colors through music.

“It brings him happiness,” Stevens said.

Source: Student filmmakers hope for more wins at Benicia Film Festival

New act begins for longtime Benicia High drama teacher – Benicia Herald

By Nick Sestanovich

After 17 years, Christine Mani has taken her final bow as Benicia High School’s drama teacher. However, she will have a new role as a full-time theater instructor at Solano Community College.

Mani cites the need to help Solano’s theater department— which suffered drastic budget cuts in 2012— as her reason to leave Benicia High, an institution she still regards warmly.

“I love Benicia High,” she said. “I love the students, I love the location, I love the people and I love working for them, but like Mary Poppins, I have to leave Benicia because there’s somebody who needs me more. Right now, Solano— which used to be quite the hub of theater in our area— needed a little extra help, and I’m happy to be that help.”

Mani became a drama teacher to fulfill a lifelong love of theater.

Source: New act begins for longtime Benicia High drama teacher

Armijo artist chosen for Washington showcase – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Devin Cox, an Armijo High junior, is the first runner-up in Congressman John Garamendi’s annual Congressional High School Art Competition.

More than 90 entries were received. Cox’s “The Jaw of Politics” will be displayed in Garamendi’s Washington, D.C., office.

Davis High sophomore Hoda Balla was the grand prize winner with “Glimpse.” Her art will be exhibited at the United States Capitol.

She has also been awarded a free flight for her and a guest to the nation’s capitol where she will participate in a reception honoring the nation’s winners.

Source: Armijo artist chosen for Washington showcase

More Heart, More Art Through STEAM | Edutopia

By Stacey Goodman

Art continues to remain marginal in education, and I believe this is why: Despite tremendous growth in technology, STEM industries, and education, we are stuck in a rut in our politics, our economy, and the fight for health and fairness for most people.

Art makes us more human and empathetic. Without art, it is hard to imagine the lives of other people, other creatures, and the possibilities of other realities in general. Because of this deficit in art education, young people have tremendous faith in the coolness and remarkable evolution of their gadgets, but not much faith in themselves and other humans to grow and evolve.

Source: More Heart, More Art Through STEAM | Edutopia

Vaca High Students place in “Breathe California” contest – The Reporter

Two Vacaville High School students have been named winners in a competitive environmental art contest in the Sacramento region.

Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails has announced 12 winners of its annual Clean Air Art Contest.

Vaca High student Cynthia Rendon Aguilar won third place in the Fine Art category. Fellow Bulldog Elena Quintana won third place in the Ceramics and Sculpture category.

Rendon Aguilar and Quintana will be honored at Breathe’s 40th Annual Clean Air Awards Luncheon on May 11 at Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento. The pair and three other Vaca High students who were named finalists in the competition also will have their work shown at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum and Verge Center for the Arts this summer.

via: Vaca High Students place in “Breathe California” contest – The Reporter

Wood High actors to stage ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ – The Reporter

The Will C. Wood High spring production will be a nonmusical version of “Meet Me in St. Louis,” a comedy better known by its 1944 film version starring Judy Garland.

The staging opens at 7 p.m. Thursday and continues at the same time May 6 and 7 in the school’s Catwalk Theatre, 998 Marshall Road.

Tickets are $7 adults and $5 for students at the door.

The story tells the tale of the four rambunctious Smith sisters. They decide they do not want to move just when the 1904 World’s Fair is about to begin in their hometown. In the process, the sisters learn about life and love, thanks to the boy next door. In the end, after some romantic misunderstandings and crazy antics, love conquers all.

Source: Wood High actors to stage ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’

Solano College students showcase mastery of foreign languages – Daily Republic

By Susan Hiland

Students clapped their hands Friday night and sang along to “A Dios le Pido,” a Spanish song that many of them knew word for word.

The “duck” feathers flew in the air as “Mon Merle” lost his feathers. And the chicken dance was sung and danced in French and it was called “La Danse des Canards.”

The music and dances were all for the 8th Annual Foreign Language Night at Solano Community College. The event presented in several languages including Spanish, French and German had the crowd of about 150 students and teachers eagerly waiting for the next group to come on the small stage.

Source: Solano College students showcase mastery of foreign languages

Charcoal drawing takes top honors at student show – Daily Republic

By Amy Maginnis-Honey

Ernestina Garcia was having a “very proud parent moment” as she gazed at, then photographed, her daughter’s artwork on the wall of the Vacaville Art Gallery.

Natalia Garcia, a Willis Jepson seventh-grader, had replicated the Twenty One Pilots album cover for the record “Gun.”

“She’s very artistic,” Garcia said, adding the family has many of her drawings on the wall of their home.

Creativity runs in the family, Garcia said. Another daughter is a musician.

The younger Garcia said she chose Twenty One Pilots because they are her favorite band. She had also submitted a drawing of the late David Bowie.

Source: Charcoal drawing takes top honors at student show

Benicia High School Performing Arts Presents: Seussical, The Musical – Benicia Patch

By Irma Serna

The Cat in the Hat tell the story of Horton, a gamer-boy elephant who discovers a speck of dust containing the tiny world of Whoogle, including the beta-tester Jojo, a Who child who simply wants to invent a new phone app but is punished for thinking too many “thinks.”  Horton faces a double challenge–not only must he protect the Whos from a concrete jungle of naysayers and dangers, but he must guard an abandoned egg, left to his care by the irresponsible reality TV Star, Mayzie La Bird.  Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping, and a trial, his adoring neighbor the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him.

Source: Benicia High School Performing Arts Presents: Seussical, The Musical

Dreamers and innovators drawn to Benicia Mini Makers Faire – Times Herald

By Matthew Adkins

Benicia Middle School was the setting of the annual Benicia Makers Faire Saturday.

A celebration of ingenuity and creativity, the event was a chance for children and adults to explore the world of crafts, electronics and engineering.

Aaron Newcomb, president of Benicia Makers Space, explained the event took about six months of work to organize.

“We did all the planning and everything, then we contacted local makers and people we know who like to do this and invited them to come at no charge,” Newcomb said. “A lot of people are here because they love what they do. It’s a community event run by volunteers, and so far it’s gone pretty well.”

Source: Dreamers and innovators drawn to Benicia Mini Makers Faire

Student film festival marks 15th run with bevy of flicks – Daily Republic

By Amy Maginnis-Honey

A music video, two teens lost in Vacaville and a parody of the song “Let It Go” were three of the almost 25 films shown Wednesday at the 15th annual Eye Light Film Festival.

High school students from Solano County and beyond submitted 40 films for the event, which was launched at Buckingham Charter Magnet High School. A short documentary on the making of “Sanctuary” was screened before the student films. It was the film that brought the festival to fruition.

Actor, director and producer Charlie Holliday, who started in “Sanctuary,” was in the lobby at Brenden Theatres to greet and chat with guests.

Source: Student film festival marks 15th run with bevy of flicks

Solano College welcomes German composer, ceramic artist – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Pentti Turpeinen, a German composer, will perform at 2 p.m. April 22 at Solano Community College in the Dorothy Herger Gallery, Building 1300, 4000 Suisun Valley Road.

His performances are often described as “falling somewhere between classical music and performance art.”

Turpeinen has performed, composed and taught music throughout Europe over the past four decades.

His wife Sabine Turpeinen, a ceramic artist, will join him in his visit to Solano College. She will demonstrate Japanese Tea Ceremony ceramics with Marc Lancet in the ceramics/sculpture lab beginning at 10 a.m.

Source: Solano College welcomes German composer, ceramic artist

What is your tax-tolerance limit? – Daily Republic

By Barbara Wright

The Fairfield-Suisun School District sent homeowners within the district a community facility survey in January requesting a ranking in importance of conducting routine building maintenance, providing job training for students, providing libraries with space for music and arts, and upgrading classrooms to meet 21st-century learning standards.

This propaganda piece displayed photos of under-sink plumbing, a dirty radiator and a nondescript area of maybe a roof.

The piece touched briefly on the Facilities Master Plan, which addresses school modernization projects. Also mentioned is the need to upgrade the technology aspects of the curriculum.

Source: What is your tax-tolerance limit?

Drumlines, winterguards hold exhibition at Jesse Bethel – Times Herald

By Matthew Adkins

As schools bands around the county wrap up their winter season, students are holding one last performance to showcase their talent.

Jesse Bethel High School played host on Friday to the annual Winter Drumline and Colorguard Exhibition.

The high school’s gymnasium was standing-room only as hundreds of students in full costume put on their winter shows for the crowd.

Eight teams from area high schools took turns playing percussion instruments and performing elaborate choreographed dances with props.

Source: Drumlines, winterguards hold exhibition at Jesse Bethel

Benicia students enjoy an art-full day – Times Herald

By Irma Widjojo

Creating was the name of the game Thursday at Robert Semple Elementary School.

Students traded in their traditional books and pencils with paintbrushes, crayons, even Jelly Beans and their imagination during the annual Art Day at the school.

“This day is a celebration,” Principal Christina Moore said. “It highlights the involvement of the parents, community and the school to put this together. And we realize that students need art in school. … For some students art is the hook that gets them back to school.”

Source: Benicia students enjoy an art-full day

Poster contest asks Solano children to ‘think outside the car’ – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Children who attend elementary and middle schools in Solano County are being asked to “think outside the car” and design a poster to encourage their classmates to walk, bike or ride a scooter to school instead of getting to school by car.

The poster contest is sponsored by the Solano Safe Routes to School program and is open to children from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade within the county.

via Poster contest asks Solano children to ‘think outside the car’.

To be or not to be: Fairfield High drama program rebuilding – Daily Republic

By Amy Maginnis-Honey

Elizabeth Choy was excited about taking over drama and theater classes at Fairfield High School.

After all, she was following the footsteps of Bob Wagner, who had spent almost 34 years at the school and had built an award-winning theater program.

Instead, she arrived to find little that resembled the thriving program that had existed.

“The old sets, the furniture, everything was ruined,” Choy said.

The time between Wagner’s departure and Choy’s arrival, about a year, had been filled with substitute teachers, Choy said.

via To be or not to be: Fairfield High drama program rebuilding.

Fairfield High drama group wraps up comedy – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Fairfield High School’s Way Off Broadway Theatre wraps up its run of “A Bad Year for Tomatoes” this weekend.

The plot centers on a famous actress who, feeling too much pressure, leases a house in a tiny hamlet with the goal of writing her autobiography.

When nosy neighbors determine who she is, the actress invents a mad, homicidal sister, locked in an upstairs room, who escapes long enough to scare off uninvited visitors.

via Fairfield High drama group wraps up comedy.