Open Schools's Enrichment programs cover various arts disciplines and occur during the school day. 

We consider the arts to be essential to the education of all students and they are an integral part of fulfilling the schools's mission and philosophy.

Integrating the Arts

Each of the arts disciplines encompasses a rich body of knowledge that enables students to understand their world in ways that support and enhance their learning in other subjects. Students learn to see what they look at, hear what they listen to, feel what they touch, and understand more clearly what they integrate into their own experience.

Study of the arts helps all students exercise their cognitive reasoning and makes their experiences more joyful. Students’ cognitive skills, such as language fluency and reading comprehension, are enhanced as they talk and write about works of art they have viewed, created, and performed. When students talk about works of art and performances, they engage in the process of analysis. When they discuss relationships between works of art, they synthesize perceptions and information about those works and their own experiences.

Of equal importance is how the arts help students gain insights into other cultures. Through the arts, students are able to discern their own lives and cultures more clearly. The arts help us to communicate with one another across language and cultural barriers.

The three fundamental philosophical principles for arts education at The Open Charter School are:

  1. The visual and performing arts have an intrinsic value that makes them indispensable in every student’s education. They inspire self-confidence and help keep students interested in school;
  2. The arts assist students in learning other subjects and disciplines and can improve student performance in other subject areas. The arts engage a wide variety of students, including those who may be more difficult to reach students; and,
  3. Through their exposure and knowledge of art forms, students can experience and enjoy the arts throughout their lives.

Our comprehensive arts education program has two components:

  1. Subject specific arts instruction in visual arts, drama, music, and dance; and
  2. Instruction integrating arts with other core subjects.

While we believe that the visual and performing arts need to be well integrated into the curriculum, we also believe that students need to be exposed to specialists skilled in the arts. Students need to understand the essential elements, knowledge, and skills of the arts disciplines. Our arts specialists offer students weekly instruction in the visual arts, drama, music and orchestra.

In addition, integrating the arts and other core subjects strengthens the achievement of instructional goals. Building connections through the arts gives students opportunities to understand and discover relationships between and across the disciplines. Integration of the arts provides opportunities for thinking, feeling, and doing that enable students to perceive ideas or concepts through different lenses. By discovering and using authentic connections between subjects, students can gain deeper understandings; they learn that various disciplines may look at similar issues, ideas, concepts, or events from distinct perspectives and apply different methodologies to that analysis.

Enrichment Programs

Open School has the following enrichment programs. 

  • Art
  • Music (Instrumental and Choir)
  • Garden/Ecology
  • Physical Education

Detailed information on these programs will be provided soon.

Funding Enrichment

Enrichment programs are funded in large part through the efforts of Friends of Open School.

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