“In college, we were told if you have ten percent of your students participating in the arts, you’re lucky.”

For Sandra Poczobut, director of the creative arts program at Saint Monica-Saint Michael School in Barre, luck has nothing to do with it. Starting as the school’s music teacher in 2002, Poczobut’s responsibilities now extend to the performing arts, as well as managing creative arts programs as a whole. Bolstered by supportive staff and administration, the arts at Saint Monica-Saint Michael are not an extracurricular afterthought; they are as essential to the school’s curriculum as grammar or arithmetic. “We have one hundred percent participation”, Poczobut continues.

Diadel Ortiz, the school’s art director, shares this attitude of total participation. “An understanding of art, an understanding of beauty, is essential” she says, showing some of her students’ latest works. “Some of these students have never touched a pastel in their life, never touched clay…what I want kids to do is just to try. Art is not just painting, or drawing, it’s exercising your imagination.” In a world increasingly defined by algorithms, data, and marketing metrics, it may seem like the human creative spirit has fewer outlets than ever before. This, Ortiz argues, is why participation in the arts is so crucial for young minds. “Without that exploration, art becomes this dead, alien thing you go visit in a museum.”

For most students, art will not become a career; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 2% of all full-time jobs are in a creative industry such as music, film, or graphic design. But the lessons gleaned from the study of the arts don’t solely apply to those who work in those fields. “The thing that I notice the most, teaching post-COVID, is student independence. Their musical ability is not gone, it’s never gone, but their ability to stand on their own two feet and believe in themselves is a bit different.” Essential to music and the performing arts are universal skills such as time management, teamwork, professionalism, and conflict resolution; “I tell them all the time, you are not an island!” As she says this, Poczobut’s drama students file into the room for rehearsal; the enthusiasm is palpable, and the students immediately begin setting their practice stage, rehearsing lines, and warming up. It is instantly apparent that this is not simply a rote exercise the students undertake out of necessity; there is engagement, passion, pride even.

“Art is in everything, it’s everywhere” says Ortiz. “You look outside, the streets you walk on, the cars, the lamps, the buildings, the wording in everything you read, even data – art is involved in all of it.” This attitude represents a paradigm shift away from confining “art”, as a concept, to painting or sculpture, and instead recognizing the role art plays in everyday life, often on a level most people don’t stop to consider. “People complain about ‘small M’ minimalism, where everything is just a little less vibrant, less detailed or intentional than it was before. We hear it a lot as Catholics, in discussions about church design, how the architecture and sacred art has changed. How kids experience art, growing up, is where that change starts.” Appreciation of beauty is, in some ways, a civilizational benchmark – without the arts, society coarsens.

Another notion the program aims to put to rest is that art is only for certain people – that participation in the arts is the private preserve of those with exceptional talent or passion. “I had one kid who hated art” Ortiz recalls, laughing. “He was a good kid, was passing the class, but he was very clear he did not like art. Then we started working with clay, and he made a little bird…he said, ‘It’s alright, I guess’. He’s in high school now, and his mother just reached out to me – he’s enrolled in art classes, and loves them.” While making art a required subject may seem counterintuitive, it pushes students to find the creative niche which speaks to them the most. “Most of these kids have never put on a play before” Poczobut says. “A lot of them said they hated acting, couldn’t memorize lines, didn’t have the confidence or the knowledge to go out and perform. And now, well…” She gestures towards the students, rehearsing a scene essentially on their own.

When parents consider enrolling their children in one of the schools of the diocese, the obvious priority is academic excellence. Will my child learn the necessary skills to survive and compete in the world? As the model set at Saint Monica-Saint Michael shows, however, this excellence is incomplete without a solid foundation in the creative arts. Pope Benedict XVI once called art “one of the greatest apologetics of our faith”; the appreciation and application of the arts can only serve to enrich our lives, and in this matter the students of Saint Monica-Saint Michael are richer than most.