The Fine and Performing Arts Department fosters maximum development of human creative potential by familiarizing students with fundamental principles of each art form through participation in the creative process, criticism, and history, thus providing the students with meaningful self-expression and cultural expression. The department strives to give students a greater appreciation for the arts as an important realm of human knowledge through direct experiences as audience and as creator. We provide for the continuing growth and development of students through advanced level classes, cooperative endeavors, and extracurricular activities in all areas.    

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The RGNS Fine Arts Philosophy

Why the Fine Arts Are Important

The arts make a contribution to education that reaches beyond their intrinsic value as direct forms of thinking. Because each arts discipline appeals to different senses and expresses itself through different media, each adds a special richness to the learning environment. As students imagine, create, and reflect, they are developing both verbal and nonverbal abilities necessary to school progress. At the same time, they are developing problem-solving abilities and higher-order thinking skills. Research points toward a consistent and positive correlation between a substantive education in the arts and student achievement in other subjects and on standardized tests. A comprehensive, articulated arts education program also engages students in a process that helps them develop the self-discipline, cooperation, and self-motivation necessary for self-esteem and success for life.

The arts teach students to:

• Understand human experiences, both past and present;
• Adapt to and respect others' ways of thinking, working, and expressing themselves;
• Learn artistic modes of problem solving, which bring an array of expressive, analytical, and developmental tools to every human situation;
• Understand the influence of the arts, in their power to create and reflect cultures, in the impact of design on virtually all we use in daily life, and in the interdependence of work in the arts with the broader worlds of ideas and actions;
• Make decisions in situations where there are no standard answers;
• Analyze nonverbal communication and make informed judgments about cultural products and issues; and,
• Communicate thoughts and feelings in a variety of modes, giving them a vastly more powerful repertoire of self-expression.

Source-National Standards for Education in the Arts