Michelle Hernick knew she wanted to pursue her passion for acting. Faced with the choice two years ago of attending a large suburban high school or a smaller charter school geared to the performing arts, the Roseville teenager opted to focus on the arts.
Now a junior at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, she says she couldn’t be happier.
“Every day is like a rehearsal,” she says. “Because I’m having so much fun in every aspect of it, it doesn’t seem like school at all.”
Students at the Conservatory, based in St. Paul’s Landmark Center, spend half their day in academic classes and half in dance, theater, or music classes taught by professional artists. Hernick says the students’ shared interests help create a supportive, caring atmosphere.
The options for teenagers like Hernick have expanded dramatically in Minnesota since the state’s first arts-centered public high school, the Perpich Arts High School in Golden Valley, opened 18 years ago. It accepts about 310 juniors and seniors by audition from across the state. The St. Paul Conservatory, which opened in 2005, and the Main Street School of Performing Arts in Hopkins, which opened in 2004, each serve more than 200 students in grades 9–12. Cities like Burnsville and Mankato are also considering starting similar schools.
Performing arts-focused magnet and charter school options also exist for younger students, mostly within the greater Twin Cities area. One of the largest, Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource (FAIR) School in Robbinsdale, is an interdistrict arts magnet serving 560 students in grades 4–8. It opened in 2000.
Educators say some traditional schools have reduced their arts offerings in recent years due to budget cuts or the pressure to meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements. These factors, combined with a growing interest in charter schools and a growing recognition of the educational benefits of combining arts and academics, have fueled the demand for arts-centered programs.
Creativity leads to confidence
“Creativity is an innate desire in human beings,” says Main Street School Principal Karen Charles. “As school budgets have been decreased all the way around, and requirements for mastering the basic skills have increased, schools overall have reduced that programming. Students don’t have as many outlets available to them; I think that’s why these schools have come about.”
Numerous studies show that participating in the arts enhances student learning in other academic areas. It also helps students gain confidence in their presentation skills and exercise their creative abilities, which will be useful when they join the workforce, Charles says.
FAIR School Principal Kevin Bennett agrees that students benefit greatly when the arts and academics are integrated rather than taught as separate subjects. He says his school’s interdisciplinary approach has produced positive test results and played a huge role in motivating students.
“It’s extremely important to provide students with a balanced, well-rounded education,” Bennett says. “The freedom to be creative, to express, is powerful. The earlier you give kids the opportunity to be creative, the more confidence they’re going to have as they continue their schooling.”
Ripley Peterson understands the motivational power of the arts. His daughter Ione, a Main Street School senior, has always loved to sing, dance, and act. When the school opened, she jumped at the chance to enroll, even though it meant separating from her friends in the St. Louis Park school district.
“The school was the perfect thing at the perfect time,” Peterson says. “My wife and I comment a lot that it’s fantastic to have a child who gets up and wants to go to school in the morning. We know parents who have to cajole their kids. [Our daughter] can’t wait to come to school — she absolutely loves it.”
‘A life raft’
More than a third of the Perpich students come from greater Minnesota and live on campus. Many are from towns where the arts aren’t readily accessible, or are not supported financially, says Bruce Santerre, the school’s past interim director. Attending an arts school can be a confidence boost for these teens, whose passion for the arts often sets them apart from their hometown peers.
“This place is a life raft for kids,” Santerre says. “A student can come here and express his or her voice without any fear. The welcome and respect are absolutely incredible. The school does attract a lot of kids who are right on the margins, on the edge. The arts provides them with that method, that vehicle to figure out who they are and accept who they are.”
The Perpich Center for Arts Education is a state agency with a mission is to improve K–12 arts education throughout Minnesota. In addition to operating the high school, it provides teachers with professional development opportunities and resources.
Executive Director Nathan Davis says the late Gov. Rudy Perpich worked to establish the Arts High School because he felt youth in many rural areas of the state lacked access to cultural opportunities. Davis says a gap between urban and rural areas still exists, but he’s optimistic that providing a quality arts education will increasingly be viewed as a necessity for all of Minnesota’s students.
“I’d like to see the arts areas absolutely ingrained into the fabric of our schools. I’d like the schools to be places where art is taught, learned and made, and where the connections to community are an inexorable part of that environment,” he says.
Future options
Hernick, the St. Paul Conservatory junior, and recent Main Street graduate Theo Langason are two students whose lives already have been enriched by their exposure to the arts.
Langason graduated in June and began studying theater this fall at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“At Main Street, I got to experience things I may not have thought I’d like to do; now that I have, it’s big part of my life,” Langason says. “I will try to keep all my options open, and try to learn as much as I can, so later in life I’ll have a broad range of things to choose from.”
Hernick doesn’t know what she wants to do after graduation, but she’s pretty sure it will involve the arts. Her training already has led to exciting experiences: In August she performed a student-written play at the New York International Fringe Festival, along with Langason and several other Conservatory and Main Street students.
“I definitely wouldn’t have had that opportunity if I’d gone to my regular high school,” she says.
Joy Riggs is a Northfield freelance writer.
