The Arts are a critical component of Orchard Gardens’ vision for success. Every Orchard Gardens student participates in a minimum of four hours per week of art, including visual arts, dance, theatre and music (instrumental and choral). We have two full-time Visual Arts teachers, a full-time Dance teacher, a full-time Theatre teacher, a Library Media teacher, and one full-time and one part-time Music teacher.
The Arts allow our students access to multiple disciplines and provide the opportunity to build connections between content areas; both of which allow our students to better understand and retain what they are learning. Most critically, the Arts provide students safe venues to take risks, to push themselves in areas they have never experienced (the stage, the studio, etc) and in which they are often uncomfortable. The Arts help us teach our students that by working through the uncertainty and taking on the most daunting of challenges they can and will succeed. The Arts provide a new perspective for students, one in which they see themselves in a world where effort, not innate ability, leads to high levels of achievement.
An Arts education allows students structured opportunities to take risks; teaching students how to see the world from different perspectives; supports opportunities for students to learn about themselves; and - when linked to and integrated with multiple disciplines - structures learning in a way that enables students to better understand what they are learning and become more adept at applying what they have learned in new situations.
We are proud of our Arts program, and we celebrate our students’ artwork and performances during two annual School-Wide Arts Showcases held at the school in the fall and spring. Our partners in the Arts include: Boston Arts Academy, Berklee College of Music, and Celebrity Series of Boston’s Ailey Camp.
