It’s tough enough to keep an established school running day to day, week to week. But to start one up from scratch and try to make a go of it is a mammoth undertaking. The New Mexico School for the Arts, located in the former St. Francis Cathedral School in Downtown Santa Fe, is aiming even higher after opening for classes Tuesday. The charter school wants to be a model for the region and even the nation. Move over, Julliard and New York High School for the Performing Arts! OK, maybe that’s expecting a little too much. The school isn’t looking for students from around the country, but it is trying for representation from around the state. Some 20 students of the 141 enrolled are taking advantage of the offer of dorm space at the New Mexico School for the Deaf. Not surprisingly, though, Santa Fe students make up about 68 percent of the student body. And why not? The City Different is widely known for its art scene, whether it be the opera or chamber music festival, the rows of galleries dedicated to the visual arts, a ballet company garnering favorable reviews across the country, or a growing presence of film and theater arts in town. If Laureate’s attempts to further strengthen the arts curriculum at the former College of Santa Fe (now to be known as the Santa Fe University of Art and Design) bear fruit, our hometown might develop a powerful onetwo punch in nurturing budding artists at both the high school and college level. The New Mexico School for the Arts definitely drew interest, starting with 400 inquiries from students, leading to 275 completed applications and 245 auditions in the spring. For those who have joined the inaugural classes at the New Mexico School for the Arts, enthusiasm appears to be high — among both students and staff. After all, how many schools greet their students with a song written by a teacher and sung by the faculty? And how many students eagerly audition to be accepted into high school? “Here we had this little ember of idea that we carried for so many years in our hearts and minds, and it’s become three-dimensional,” said Catherine Oppenheimer, the board’s chairwoman, at the opening assembly Tuesday. Head of School Jim Ledyard told students that “we set out on this adventure brimming with confidence and enthusiasm.” Congratulations and best of luck to the school, its students and its teachers. We look forward to what their adventure will produce.
Archive for August, 2010
Editorial on NMSA Opening
Friday, August 20th, 2010NMSA’s Grand Opening
Friday, August 20th, 2010Excitement, anticipation and a little bit of music mingled in the air Tuesday as the New Mexico School for the Arts celebrated its inaugural day of classes. Parents and other community members joined NMSA staff and students for an assembly to mark the first day at the new statewide, public arts school. A total of 141 students in the ninth through 11th grades have come to the school’s downtown Santa Fe campus — located at the former St. Francis Cathedral School building — to receive training in their choice of dance, music, theater or visual arts, in addition to the standard coursework needed to obtain a New Mexico diploma. Those students were welcomed into Tuesday’s assembly with a standing ovation and they left following a faculty performance of a song written for the occasion.
A series of speakers — including Academy Award winner and New Mexico resident Shirley MacLaine — took the stage during the event to honor the students as they begin their new journey. “This is the first step in the recognition of your talent and your commitment to your artistic disciplines. I congratulate you on your choices and on your promising future. You are our Olympians,” said New Mexico Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart Ashman. “Yes, your efforts to date have paid off, but now the work really begins.” Approximately 245 students auditioned last February to attend NMSA and more than 90 percent who were offered spots accepted them. Though 68 percent of the students hail from Santa Fe, the student population represents all three congressional districts. Approximately 20 students are taking advantage of a residential program that allows them to live on the New Mexico School for the Deaf campus. MacLaine told the crowd Tuesday that she was reminded of her own experience, leaving her Virginia home for New York at age 16. “I was trepidatious and a little frightened, but I found myself relying on the artist inside of me,” she said. MacLaine — who abandoned the stage in favor of talking to the students upclose — told the teens “never forget who you are” because that self-recognition serves artists well. “Remember to go inside, and you will be the one who is producing and creating all of the reality around you. That’s what art is,” she said.
Several of Tuesday’s speakers expressed awe that the school had finally become a reality. New Mexico first lady Barbara Richardson said she sometimes doubted this day would come. “The opening of this school is the culmination of more than six years of hard work and roller-coaster rides for many here today,” she said. It was a sentiment shared by Catherine Oppenheimer, chair of the school’s governing board. “Here we had this little ember of idea that we carried for so many years in our hearts and minds and it’s become threedimensional,” she said. Oppenheimer pointed out that fundraising would always be a part of keeping the school running but said she didn’t think that would be a problem. As a public school, NMSA gets state funding that covers the cost of a basic academic education, but Oppenheimer noted that private donations pay for the arts element, including the instruction and materials. The state gave NMSA $528,000 in onetime startup money since the school didn’t qualify for federal charter school funding because auditions are required for acceptance.
Prior to inviting faculty members onstage to sing “Celebrate the Arts” — a song penned by Roy M. Rogosin, the school’s director of choirs — Head of School Jim Ledyard thanked the students for making the choice to attend NMSA. “We know since choice translates into motivation, which is passion, that the likelihood of success here is very, very high indeed — your success and the school’s success — so we set out on this adventure brimming with confidence and enthusiasm,” he said.
NMSA Registers Its First Students
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010“N.M. School for the Arts poised to prep teens for college, careers”
Santa Fe New Mexican; by Robert Nott; 8-16-10
About 140 teens showed up in a warm, crowded gym Monday to sign up for classes at the new, state-funded New Mexico School for the Arts in downtown Santa Fe.The school, in the making since 2005, officially starts today with a morning assembly featuring actress Shirley MacLaine and Mayor David Coss as guest speakers, followed by a half-day of classes. Students this year are in grades nine through 11; seniors will be added next year.
Housed in the former St. Francis Cathedral School on the corner of East Alameda Street and Paseo de Peralta, the school is drawing students from around New Mexico, although 68 percent of the initial enrollment comes from the Santa Fe area.
“It’s specifically geared toward anyone who wants to turn art into a career, and that’s what I want to do,” explained 15-year-old Chris Iannucci as she stood near the front of the line to register for theater classes Monday.
Students will study traditional subjects such as math, English and history while focusing on one of four arts-related curriculums: theater, dance, music or visual arts.
The ultimate goal is to prepare students for college and an arts career.
“I’m excited, enthused and energized,” Jim Ledyard, head of school, said as students swirled around him, delivering paperwork to an office or a registration table. “I expect that, for many of these students, this will be the first time they can concentrate in-depth on their art form.”
Ledyard previously worked 11 years as head of the independent Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, N.C. He and his arts chair directors — Joey Chavez (theater) Adam McKinney (dance), Ben Klemme (music) and Cristina González (visual arts) — joined other teachers and staff — about 25 in all — in welcoming and signing in students Monday morning.
Though a few students and parents complained of the heat in the cramped gym, the mood was otherwise upbeat, with teens eagerly greeting familiar faces and parents — more moms than dads, it seemed — beaming with pride.
“I’m very pleased,” Nina Simmons said of her daughter, Taos resident Maggie Carson. “It’s a privilege for her to be going here.”
Carson — whose brightly colored hair and clothes suggested a moving work of art, which is fitting given she’s studying visual arts at the school — said, “It’s going to be amazing to be totally immersed in art.”
Another mom, Polly Montoya of Santa Fe, said the school is bound to be a good fit for her 16-year-old son, David James Dean III (she’s a big fan of the late actor James Dean).
“He was a real rambunctious kid,” she said of her son as he filled out paperwork. “Down in Albuquerque, I got him a $20 guitar. I put it in his hands and he taught himself how to play. This is his passion; this school can jump-start his career. I think he is destined to do great things.”
Chance Willey (his parents got married in Las Vegas, Nev., it was explained), 15, is taking the theater program at New Mexico School for the Arts. He said he’d been acting since he was 5 years old, and this school “seemed like the logical thing to do now.”
Roy Rogosin, director of the school’s choir, was manning the literature table in the gym, filling in for an English teacher who had stepped away.
“This is very exciting stuff,” he said as students collected textbooks. “I wish I were on the other side of this table. This is the sort of place that young art students dream of — and if they don’t dream of it, they should!”
The institute is the first residential charter school in the state, and tuition is free, though some students may pay boarding costs on a sliding scale. Unlike most such schools, admission is not by lottery, but by audition. About 250 students auditioned last March for the school.
Roughly 20 students will board at Cartwright Hall on the New Mexico School for the Deaf campus while another 20 or so will commute daily from nearby communities, including Española, Las Vegas, N.M., and Albuquerque.
The school’s annual budget is about $2 million, which is supported by legislative startup funds of $525,000 as well as private and corporate donations. Catherine Oppenheimer, one of the founding committee members of the school and the founding artistic director of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico, said the board will be very busy raising funds to grow it into a model school for the state and country.
“I think there’s a tremendous amount of energy and hope and excitement behind the school now,” she said. “This state has such a unique cultural heritage and arts history — this makes so much sense. Why shouldn’t we be nurturing, developing and growing our own artists, and why should access to that kind of education be given only to students who can afford it privately? New Mexico can do this.”
The school has a four-year lease at the downtown site, with an option to extend an additional year, but both Ledyard and Oppenheimer said it will have to find or build its own campus by that time to fulfill all of its potential.
Ledyard said the school will probably add another 75 students next year, moving toward its eventual cap of 300 pupils.
According to Adelma Hnasko, director of admissions for the school, the admission process for the 2011/2012 school year will begin in September. Details can be found on the school’s website, www.nmschoolforthearts.org.
Click here for link to full article by Robert Nott