Orrville kicking off Arts in Our Schools Month
Orrville City Schools will kick off a month-long celebration of Arts in Our Schools Month on Feb. 27.
This collaborative celebration across the arts disciplines will be celebrated by a Fine Arts Extravaganza on Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the OHS gym that will combine the Orrville Middle School eighth-grade choir, the OHS concert and symphonic choirs, the OMS seventh- and eighth-grade band, the OHS concert band, and student artists from a variety of grades.
“March has been officially designated by the National Association for Music Education as Music in Our Schools Month. This is the time of year when music education and arts education as a whole become the focus of schools across the nation,” said Chris Jones, music teacher at Orrville City Schools and assistant drama teacher. “This concert is an extension of prior collaborative events that in the past was called the OHS Fine Arts Festival, in which band ensembles, the vocal department and the drama department would all perform in one concert. Once each group started hosting their own concerts, this collaborative event fell by the wayside.”
Jones helped to revive the tradition beginning with the first Arts in Our Schools concert back in 2019.
During the Feb. 27 event, art students will create art as the music students perform their selections, showcasing the interconnection among the different art forms.
“In essence,” Jones said, “the audience is able to see and witness the creative process of the visual artists from beginning to end, something the audience is often unable to experience because the audience typically only sees the finished product of the visual art process.”
The event is an attempt to showcase the collaborative nature of the arts. Many students participate in multiple ensembles across the various arts disciplines.
Jones, who teaches at Orrville Elementary School, explained how he is celebrating Arts in Our Schools Month with his elementary school music students:
“With my third- and fourth-grade students, I make it a point to collaborate with the art teacher here at OES, Micayla Bahler, and she displays artwork by the students that ties into the character education theme music program that I have planned for their annual music program,” he said. “This year the third grade presented their program based on the character education book ‘All Are Welcome’ by Alexandra Penhold and Suzanne Kaufman. The fourth grade has their program on March 21. Their program is based on the book ‘Change Sings’ by Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in United States history.”
Other teachers involved in this celebration include Band Director Elyse Cummings; Choir Director Grayson Abend; elementary music teacher Honoree Cruz; and art teachers Bahler, Samantha Anderson and Matt Ramseyer.
Jones said the arts are an essential part of a child’s education.
“The arts transcend racial, cultural, social, educational and economic barriers,” he said. “Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking and verbal skills.
“In essence they embody the whole learning process from beginning to end.”
