Announcing the Winners of the Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts

Photo: The New England Regional winners accept their award at the New England Regional Forum.

The award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts was established by the College Board in 2010 at the recommendation of the College Board’s National Task Force on Arts Education. This award recognizes and celebrates College Board member schools that have implemented an arts program that promotes student learning and creativity in exemplary and innovative ways. The $3,000 award was presented to one school in each of the College Board’s six regions to support the continuation and growth of their exemplary arts programs.

The College Board is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts:

National Winner and Middle States Regional Winner

Williamsville East High School, East Amherst, NY
Submitted by John Kryder and Stephen Shewan

Founded in 2000, Williamsville East High School’s Connections and Collaborations, is a yearlongprogram bringing together students from schools across Buffalo, NY and its suburbs, to collaborate in the creation of poetry, music, dance and visual art. The program is built around a guest poet, whose work is utilized to inspire students to create their own original works of art. Students compose music, choreograph dances, write poetry and make visual art; first in response to the guest poet’s work and then in response to each other’s work.  Past guests have included such acclaimed poets as Nikki Giovanni, Ted Kooser, and Billy Collins. The program culminates in a Celebration of Poetry, Music, Dance and Arts where students have the opportunity to share their work with the Buffalo community. For the past seven years of the program 30 schools have taken part per year, creating a truly community-oriented, collaborative experience for thousands of students.

Midwestern Regional Winner

The Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN
Submitted by Sue Mackert

The Perpich Center for Arts Education is a tuition-free public high school for students motivated to learn in and through the arts. Its residential program offers advanced instruction in Dance, Literary Arts, Media Arts, Music, Theater and Visual Arts, as well as a comprehensive academic program to 11th and 12th grade students from Minnesota.

Over the past two decades, the Perpich Center has created programs that focus on the state’s rich Native American culture, history and art. The curriculum includes a class on American Indian Aesthetics, as well as an English class on Native American Stories and Myths, which is an interdisciplinary course combining literature with dance, theater and visual arts. Students also have opportunities to meet with Native American students and elders and learn about Indigenous art, culture and history.  The Perpich Center utilizes the arts in all of their classes and cultural opportunities, recognizing that the arts are a powerful way to engage students’ learning across cultures and across the curriculum.

New England Regional Winner

Nipmuc Regional High School, Upton, MA
Submitted by Jessica Grady

Nipmuc Regional High School’s arts elective program exposes students to a wide variety of studio experiences ranging from fine arts to graphics and computer design. Nipmuc High features an open studio scheduling system, which enables Nipmuc to offer 25 art courses with only 2.75 instructors and makes it possible for students to engage in nearly every available art course during any given class period. In the open studio format, new students and advanced students work side by side, inspiring each other, sharing ideas, and learning from each other through formal and informal critiques.  Each year the efforts of all of Nipmuc’s arts students are celebrated in the Fine Arts Festival. The festival is a juried art show, open to the Upton community, featuring over 1,000 pieces of student art in media ranging from watercolor and batik to ceramics and sculpture. The arts are an essential part of education at Nipmuc Regional High School, and the opportunities in the arts provided to its students are truly exemplary. 

Southern Regional Winner

SAIL High School, Tallahassee, FL
Submitted by Rosanne Wood

SAIL High School, the School for Arts and Innovative Learning, is a public 9-12 alternative/magnet school catering to students from all backgrounds who need and want a non-traditional personalized approach to their education.  Students apply and choose to attend SAIL, but no art background, academic achievement level, or special talent is required. Over 75% of students meet Florida’s dropout prevention criteria, and yet SAIL maintains an 89% graduation rate. The arts are a significant contributor to this achievement. Teachers and administrators at SAIL recognize the arts as a way to help students expand their personal and academic potential, and as a way to keep students engaged in their learning. The art classes at SAIL are based on students’ interests, resulting in a unique and diverse array of offerings, from Electronic music, to Bluegrass, and Flash animation to darkroom photography. The arts are also infused into core academic classes at SAIL. teachers work across disciplines to maintain a creative, inquisitive environment, and to help students make connections in their learning.

Southwestern Regional Winner

Harker Heights High School, Harker Heights, TX
Submitted by Alice Taylor

At Harker Heights High School, the AP2D classes are used as a bridge between the traditional fine arts program and the practical graphics/media program taught by the vocational Career and Technology (CTE) center. This bridge program allows students who don’t work well in a traditional academic setting to take part in a rigorous and prestigious program on equal footing with top students nationwide.  Many students in this course have never taken a fine arts course before, over half are designated “at-risk”, and for many,  the AP2D course is the only AP course they will take. Despite these statistics, 97% of these students receive a 3 or higher on the AP exam, and leave high school equipped with a portfolio for college or professional employment.  The AP 2D bridge program at Harker Heights High School is an exemplary and innovative use of the AP Studio Art course that clearly promotes access and equity, while arming students with the creative and critical thinking skills they will need to be career and college ready. 

Western Regional Winner

Heritage High School, Vancouver, WA
Submitted by Lee Emmert

In 2009, Heritage High School introduced the IMMUNE SYSTEM to encourage the Heritage High community to recognize the importance of arts education as an integral component of an interdisciplinary education. By encouraging community engagement and through the use of multimedia, students from Heritage High engage in conversations with college students and professional artists about their experiences. The IMMUNE SYSTEM has also coupled its emphasis on arts education with an emphasis on community service. For the past two  years, photography students have submitted work for the Spontaneous Smiley charity and raised hundreds of dollars towards cleft palate surgeries for children in need. Students completing mandatory senior projects in community service have the opportunity to do photojournalism projects on socially significant topics and to donate works of art that promote local nonprofits. The IMMUNE SYSTEM at Heritage High School connects students to an artistic community that supports them, challenges them, and pushes them to excel.