There is a distinct correlation between art education and academic achievement. Research has identified six benefits that link art and scholar achievement, including: reading and language, math, critical thinking, social-emotional skills, motivation to learn, and maintaining a positive learning environment.
There are four major components of the Dixon art program that sets us apart from other schools in the area. These include:
- Our Visiting Artist Program
- use of professional materials
- real-world exposure via an abundance of off-site excursions
- integration of visual and performing arts in the core curriculum
OUR VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM
The Visiting Artist program at Dixon brings local and national artists, professionals in their field, for workshops to provide scholars with hands-on, immersive experiences. Our visiting artists represent various facets of the art and sciences community, including but not limited to art, culinary, photography, dance, music, performing arts, engineering, and technology.
USE OF PROFESSIONAL MATERIALS
Through our visual arts program, scholars utilize a variety of materials such as clay, marble, ceramic tiles, wood, pastels, glass, steel, and copper. In the performing arts, Dixon scholars are exposed to a variety of dance, music, and performing types including ballet, jazz, tap, choir, theater, choral, keyboards, drumming, and steelpan.
REAL-WORLD EXPOSURE
We believe the most lasting educational experiences occur outside the four walls of the classroom. For this reason, we offer many field trips and take every opportunity to expose our scholars to the local art, music, and performing community. From trips downtown to partake in artistic scavenger hunts, to tours of the myriad of galleries here in our hometown, our scholars are encouraged to interact with the world around them to develop their perspective as artists.
INTEGRATION OF ARTS INTO CORE CURRICULUM
When we’re not on field trips, art is also woven into the curriculum in the primary classrooms as a means to deepen understanding and provoke interest in core academic subjects. The integration of dance, drama, visual arts, and music into our school curriculum improves learning, memory, reading readiness, conflict resolution, social skills, reasoning, and math proficiency.