Art Education at Heights Fuels Imagination, Creativity, and Achievement

By The Times of Noblesville | March 30, 2023
Photo caption (Elementary Art): Teaching arts in elementary grades helps children develop their creative and critical thinking skills. It also helps them learn to express themselves, to think outside the box, and to problem-solve. Courtesy photo.
Photo caption (HHHS Art): Art classes are a popular draw (literally and figuratively) for students at Hamilton Heights High School. Studies show students with high levels of arts involvement had more positive outcomes in a variety of areas, from high school graduation rates to civic participation. Courtesy photo.
Photo caption (HHMS Art): While March is the month to celebrate all things art education, the work of Hamilton Heights art students can be seen throughout the school campus and the community all year long. Inspiration comes in all forms and colors. Courtesy photo.

March is Youth Art Month and Hamilton Heights School Corporation has much to celebrate when it comes to art education. Hamilton Heights has long understood the many benefits of art education including academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity to name a few.

Like math, science, or history, the arts are a way of knowing and understanding the world and the complexity of human experience. Arts education builds an appreciation for the arts, and provides students with an introduction to artistic disciplines, techniques, and major movements that serves as a foundation for lifelong engagement.

Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork. It offers invaluable lessons such as practice makes perfect, small differences can have large effects, collaboration leads to creativity, and there can be several paths to take when approaching problems and that all problems can have more than one solution. Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.

Art is an important part a well-rounded K-12 education experience and plays a pivotal role in cultivating the next generation of citizens and leaders. Heights’ art educators, Taylor Myers (HHHS), Erin Goodman (HHMS), and Cheri Trachtman (HHES), get this and have been instrumental is opening the door to the unlimited possibilities of creative expression for their students beginning at the elementary level.

Taylor Myers, Hamilton Heights High School Art Teacher, became an art educator to show students how to use their creativity and artistic skills in the real world. Cheri Trachtman, Hamilton Heights Elementary School Art Teacher became an art educator because she gets great joy in creating herself and wanted to share that with her students. Erin Goodman, Hamilton Heights Middle School Art Teacher, became an art educator because she likes helping students to build skills and confidence through artistic experiences. All three are gifted educators who believe that art is essential for the full development of the student.

“The thing that makes Hamilton Heights’ art education special is that our small, tight knit community allows the art teachers to know one another and to work on community opportunities together,” they said. “We work together by creating community projects that increase understanding and interest in art. Engaging with art is essential to the human experience.”

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