Skyline arts program full of drama – and singing, and painting

By Kim Glasscock, Longmont Ledger

The sounds of loud thuds echoed down the art hall as Skyline High School students in a sculpture class pummeled hunks of clay. In another classroom, students in the a visual arts class worked with acrylic paint. Nearby, the vocal music room was filled with voices blending together as the all-women Falconnaires Choir practiced an a cappella piece, while a group of dance students moved to an internal beat as they worked out their choreography in the music hallway.

It was just a typical Friday morning in the performing-arts wing at Skyline High School.

Alexia Hegy, freshman, 14, searches for her paintings in the drying rack.

After more than two years of brainstorming and planning by Skyline teachers, administrators and a community steering committee, the Visual & Performing Arts Academy at Skyline was born in August. The VPA offers students interested in the arts – dance, drama, visual arts and music – the chance to focus on their passion in addition to their regular studies. Approximately 70 freshmen and sophomore students enrolled in the VPA for its first year.

“I like art, painting and photography, and this program gives me the chance to take more of those classes,” said freshman Alexia Hegy.

Freshman Carrie Kriel said she came to Skyline explicitly because of the VPA.

“I really like to sing, and this program seemed like it would give me a chance to follow my passion and help me make a career out of music,” she said.

Students enrolled in the Visual & Performing Arts Academy must take an additional 5.5 elective credits in the arts, participate in an internship their junior or senior year and complete a senior capstone project in order to graduate with a VPA certificate.

“The VPA certificate gives the student an area of emphasis, rather like a picking a major in high school,” said Heidi Ringer, Skyline assistant principal. “We want to get our visual and performing arts students to really focus on their passion and be ready after graduation to go wherever – college, design school, a performing arts company or to enter the workplace and exhibit their work.”

Sophomore David Dean, a drama emphasis student, said he became interested in enrolling in the VPA after he performed in the Skyline play last year.

“Drama has really become a passion of mine, and I think the academy will help me pursue it as a career,” he said. “Besides, the classes are pretty fun.”

The VPA also will sponsor a series of events such as field trips, speakers and performances, according to academy co-coordinators art teacher Jennifer McLees and choir director Stephen Ross. VPA students will team with the Skyline Art Club to visit the Denver Art Museum on Nov. 10, for exampmle, and later in November will hear a performance by the female singing group Moira Smiley and VOCO, a “sort of eclectic Cold Mountain group,” according to Ross.

To prepare for the VPA, Skyline sent its visual and performing arts teachers to professional development conferences and revised the curriculum to include the academy program. The school also expanded its class offerings, this year adding Flash animation and videography taught at Front Range Community College, along with advanced ceramics and intermediate graphics taught at the high school. Future proposed classes include music technology, advanced dance, production design, beginning piano keyboarding, advanced acting, musical/drama production and Advanced Placement art history and humanities.

“This will be a fluid curriculum,” McLees said.

Funding for the VPA has come predominately from grants. The Colorado Council for the Arts provided a $10,000 grant in 2008-09 to initially establish the VPA, Ringer said. Skyline provided an additional $2,500 in district funds for the academy and the Skyline baseball team contributed $500 to the effort. The academy also won a second two-year, $6,000 grant earlier this year from the arts council.

Even though the academy provided the reason for adding many of the new classes, all visual and performing arts classes are open to every Skyline student, McLees said.

“Everyone benefits from this,” she said. “We want to instill a lifelong appreciation of the arts in all our students.”