Tony Bennett and the Arts
April 12th, 2011 | 
Author: I recently learned about a project that singer Tony Bennett & Susan Benedetto created in New York called “Exploring the Arts: Transforming the Lives of Young People Through Arts Education.” This program started from a high school they created in New York City. “The founding of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a New York City high school where students pursue an equally rigorous arts and academic curriculum. It was very important to us that this be a public school, accessible to all children, regardless of their need or background, and it is with great joy that we have watched the school’s students achieve at such extraordinary levels since the school first opened in 2001.”
Their success with this project led them to create Exploring the Arts where they can serve many more students. You can read more about this project at http://www.exploringthearts.org/
I believe supporting education in the arts is vital to the health of our nation. Art is a part of everything in our lives from the music on the radio, the painting on the walls, the architecture of our buildings, the movies we see, and just about everything we look at. In these days where arts programs have been and continue to be drastically cut in public education, it is vital that we all find ways to be sure that we all have access to art and art education.
Be creative. Find a way today that you can contribute to the growth of art. It can be as simple as contributing to a project like Exploring the Arts, or buying a ticket to a local Arts Council fund raiser, to attending a high school play or concert. Please just do something!
Each day, look around you and be grateful for the art you see. Art so greatly enhances our lives.
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I love how you describe art, I agree and was begginging to think I was crazy for seeing it this way. I am an artist at heart, and while I love paintings and sculptures as much as the next person there is something about finding the art in life.
With me personally I am a dancer and I find beauty in the movement. The way a person walks down a street, the way birds take flight, or even the breeze moving the trees. The world is a perfect piece of living art, and we are in the midst of it.
I think this is excellent for students. I believe all children should be able to experience something like this. In all schools art should be equally important as English or Math. I hope programs like these be in cooperated in all schools.
I love that a website like this exists. I am an artist my self and I find this is a great resource for artists. Great way to market art and good gallery work. I plan to submit a body of work to this website in the near future.
-Araceli Arroyo
I can not agree enough about being grateful art we see and hear. Art helps kids create things that they could not imagine. With a pen, brush, or a microphone, a child can find something they love and enhance their creative thinking.
Philip
This is a great way to reach out to people and show them the true beauty of art. Not many have the knowledge how to appreciate it. This has inspired me to take up drawing again. I feel like I need to become more creative and express myself through art.
I honestly agree that arts are what provide us with the basic form of expressions and understandings of the world. Sometimes art can allow us to express our feelings through pictures and paints as to how the current times and situations make us feel. We do need to include art in the lives of our children because it is through that with which we learn and appreciate more the things that we do.
Contributing to art sounds like a blast!
This is a great project to bring art programs to kids in high school. It’s always sad to hear when art programs are being cut first in schools. High School students need to be able to have outlets to express themselves since that is a critical time. I should look into a local high school play or a function that is sponsored by the art department.
School of Arts ought to be available to more communities and students. Learning any type of skill through any art, embraces the developement of any student.
Your high school sholud define that. Normally it’s studio art, art history, drama, choir, music classes (sometimes band). Home ec and parenting are definitely NOT fine arts.