"The arts must be at the heart of every child's learning experience if...
they are to have a chance to dream and to create, to have beliefs, to carry a sense of cultural identity."
--James D Wolfensohn, former chairman of The Kennedy Center

The Performing Arts Program at St. Martins is designed to introduce a variety of instructional methods and artistic disciplines to allow all students access to developing their individual talents.  A recent poll, commissioned by "Americans for the Arts," revealed that 93% of Americans believe that the arts are vital to providing a well rounded education. (http://www.artsusa.org/)  St. Martin's Performing Arts Department works to support those findings using our core operating principals.  Our philosophy is that the arts are fundamental to individual development and therefore central to learning.  As a program we are inspired by the following goals:

Aesthetic Perception (Awakening of all senses) We strive to develop the ability to acknowledge and distinguish a fuller awarness of the world through the arts. 

Creative Expression (Artistic knowledge, production, performance) To develop the ability to express ideas and emotions through participation in the arts.

Arts Heritage (Historical and Cultural) To develop an awarness and understanding of the arts in an historical context and their effects on society and their power to move us.

Critical Analysis (Valuing, interpretation, judgment) To develop the capacity to make aesthetic judgment

We are committed as a faculty to offer our students outstanding sequential skills in the Performing Arts.  Through performance and appreciation the STM student discovers their individual creative potential and a better understanding of themselves in the artistic community.