Arts networking event Thursday at Burton
Burton School District will talk about the importance of arts education Thursday morning over breakfast with around 50 invited community members at a special networking event to be held at the Summit Charter Collegiate Academy cafeteria.
The Burton School District Arts Now Community, in partnership with the California Alliance for Arts Education, is hosting the event for school, community, and business leaders to increase awareness and strengthen support for arts education.
“This is an opportunity for all stakeholders to have a voice in the education of our children,” said Daniella Lovato, teacher at Oak Grove Elementary and visual and performing arts coordinator for BSD. “It gives us the opportunity to build relationships with community members. We want to hear from these people because they know the community and the families in it.”
Lovato added the invited guests include local business owners, elected officials, artists, retired educators and clergy members.
The event is part of the district’s ongoing effort to reinvigorate and reintroduce the arts as an important component of a quality education after decades of decreased funding for arts programs in schools around the country.
“In order to educate the entire child we need to create opportunities to experience the arts in and out of the classroom,” said Lovato. “The arts build creativity, innovation, teamwork and problem solving skills, and studies have proven that it helps students with their academic studies.”
Last school year, with assistance from the California Alliance for Arts Education, local community members and BSD educators discussed their vision for the future of arts education in the district along with goals and strategies to help get there.
Out of those meetings, the Burton Strategic Arts Plan was created and presented to the BSD Board of Trustees, and was officially approved in May 2017.
Hearing voices from the community is an important part of the district’s next phase of their plan to achieve sustainable and equitable arts education for all students.
“We hope to share with the community what Burton is doing with the arts right now, and where we are aiming to go in the future,” said Lovato. “The last part of Thursday’s event will be table discussions among the attendees, and the results of those discussions will dictate where we go in future meetings.”