The arts are enriched with the tools students need to succeed. Art education fosters creativity and creative problem solving both in and out of the classroom.
Combined with the core academic subjects, it provides for a well-rounded learning experience. At Southwestern Middle School students have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of experiences in the arts. Every student participates in one quarter each of visual art and music every year. Within these two courses they enjoy many diverse activities. In art they learn about the building blocks of art, the history of art across time and culture, the purposes of art in society, along with the ins and outs of various careers within the visual arts. They are exposed to an assortment of art processes such as the typical painting, drawing, sculpting and printmaking as well as more unusual ones like shibori, the art of fabric dying, paper making and paper sculpture using recycled materials, origami and much, much more.
In music class they have an opportunity unique to Southwestern Middle School with a state-of-the-art Music Technology Lab. The 24-station MIDI lab comes equipped with iMac computers, Alesis QS6.2 synthesizers and microphones. There have been rapid advancements in music technology over the last several years allowing, students at Southwestern MS as well as one high school elective to compose, experiment in sound recording, sample music and study music history. Software such as Apple's iLife suite and composition software such as Sibelius are used to create a piece of music at their own level.
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Art education fosters creativity and creative problem solving both in and out of the classroom.
Music technology is like a paintbrush. allowing students at all learning levels to experiment and develop an appreciation for the creativity of music. Besides these classes, Southwestern Middle School also caters to individual student interests in the arts. Students who love to sing can join chorus, students who desire to play an instrument can join band or orchestra, and students who want to spend extra time creating visual art can join Art Club.
Knowing how much the arts add to the enjoyment of life, we want to promote a lifelong love of the arts at Southwestern Middle School.