Wildwood Cultural Arts
Welcome to Wildwood Cultural Arts, a program that has been bringing artistically rich performances to Wildwood Elementary School for over a decade. With the enthusiastic support of the administration, faculty and staff, Wildwood Cultural Arts is able to bring at least two programs to each grade every year. Throughout the school year, the Wildwood Cultural Arts programs enrich the curriculum with music, dance, performance art, creative writing, story telling and other art forms.
Artistic programs are chosen to tie in with the curriculum and to introduce our students to different forms of music, dance and visual arts. We choose programs that are professional, interactive, artistically rich, and inspirational to children. One such program is the Multicultural Dance Workshop, brought to our second graders at the culmination of their unit of study on countries around the world. For the fifth grade, with their emphasis on effective writing, we sponsor a soup-to-nuts publishing workshop, where students write, illustrate and bind their very own book. Our current schedule of programming, and some program summaries from the past are included in this site. View schedule.
Why Art?
The Wildwood Cultural Arts program is organized by a committee of parent volunteers who believe in using the arts to inspire, to teach, and to enrich the curriculum. The arts reinforce learning and stimulate the type of creative, problem-solving thinking that is integral to every academic discipline. Jane Alexander, prior chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, eloquently expressed the connection between the arts and learning when she said, "When we teach our children to draw, we teach them to see. When we teach our children to sing or play an instrument, we teach them to listen. When we teach them about dance, we teach them about the body. When we teach a child to read and write creatively, we open a door to imagination."Our Committee
The Cultural Arts Committee is comprised of two chairpersons, a fundraising chair, and a representative for each grade level. The grade representatives work closely with the Wildwood teachers to select programs that will inspire the children and reinforce part of the curriculum. Our goal is to bring either one workshop or two performances to each grade each year, funding allowing. If you have an idea for a great arts program, please contact your grade representative, or one of the chairs.Fundraising
The Wildwood Cultural Arts program is fully through our fall Sally Foster fundraiser, generous donations from Wildwood parents and friends, and a single performance grant from the Town Club. We rely on the generosity of our supporters, the parents and families of our students at Wildwood. To support our current fundraiser, please click the link on the top of this page. Thank you in advance for supporting the arts at Wildwood!