Excellence in the Arts at East Penn

I’ve been blown away recently by the results of East Penn’s programs in arts education. Just in the last two weeks:

  • Nate Garcia won a national award for a drawing he did in an EHS art class. He’ll receive the award in person next month in New York’s Carnegie Hall.
  • Edna Creelman won two silver national medals, eight gold keys, two silver keys, and four honorable mentions for pottery she has done at the high school. She too will receive her awards at Carnegie Hall.
  • The entire Emmaus Chorale visited The Vatican this past Easter Sunday, saw the Pope, and sang at a Vatican mass. Not too shabby!

These are only a few recent examples of the results of East Penn’s commitment to the arts. Thousands of students are receiving a high quality arts education, and dozens receive awards and recognition for their efforts and accomplishments every year.

The arts are not an ‘extra’ or a luxury to a solid education; they help create the foundation of that education. As just one example, research shows that learning to play a musical instrument is not only good in itself, it also makes students better learners and better thinkers in all aspects of their lives. I hope the community will consider the important role the arts play in public education as we enter both the initial stages of an election cycle for school board members and the final stages of budgeting for the next school year.

2 thoughts on “Excellence in the Arts at East Penn”

  1. I wish there were more opportunities for instrumental musicians. He has been taking private piano lessons since second grade—something our family was only able to afford because his instructor charged us less than half of the average cost for private lessons—and even then, we really couldn’t afford it. As a 9th grader now at The Lehigh Valley Charter School for the Arts in Bethlehem, he spends 3 hrs per day in music theory, piano technique, and vocal techniques classes at school in addition to his core classes. Unfortunately these opportunities do not exist for him at Emmaus.

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