• Home
  • About
    • About This Blog
    • About the Authors
  • Song of the Day
  • Album of the Week
  • Music and Art
    • Tony Live!
    • Music
      • Viva Duets
      • Songs
      • Albums
    • Art
  • And More
    • Collaborator of the Month
    • Songwriter of the Month – 2016
    • News
      • Cheek To Cheek
      • Bennett & Brubeck -The White House Sessions Live 1962
      • Life is a Gift
      • Viva Duets
      • Zen of Bennett
      • Other News
    • About His Collaborators
    • Musings
    • Extras
      • Books
      • Interviews
      • Media
  • The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography

The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

May 1, 2013 By Suzanne 1 Comment

An Arts Education Success Story

Tony Bennett is one our country’s most important spokesmen for the value of an arts education for public school students. One of his most important accomplishments is the Exploring The Arts Foundation, founded by Mr. Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto.  The foundation created the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, NY and now in the process of creating partner schools in Los Angeles.  You can read more about the programs in Los Angeles here. The Exploring the Arts website can be found here.

In his recent book, Life is a Gift, Mr. Bennett makes this observation:

Studies have shown that students with high arts involvement perform better in school, do more community service activities, and have higher graduation rates, so it’s very important for kids to be involved in the arts–from drama, dance, vocals and instrumental music to film and fine arts.

Over the years, we have had some of the highest graduation rates and percentages of kids going off to college–not only by New York City standards, but nationwide, with an average graduation rate of 95 percent and 85 percent going on to a four-year college.

This has recently been proven at a K-8 school in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Originally planned as an arts school, instead the instruments were locked up and the school experienced violence and problems from the beginning; by 2010 it ranked in the bottom five of all public schools in the state of Massachusetts.

And then a new principal — the sixth principal in seven years — fired all the security guards and hired arts teachers instead.

His success was remarkable: within three years the school has experienced a complete turnaround. You can read the details of this amazing transformation on the NBC News website.  The video at the end of the story is from tonight’s NBC Nightly News.

The Year of Tony Bennett supports Exploring the Arts and we hope that you will consider supporting this organization as well.

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: arts education, Exploring the Arts, NBC Nightly News

Subscribe to The Year of Tony Bennett

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Current Reader Favorites

  • Song of the Day: The Right To Love
  • Song of the Day: You Must Believe in Spring
  • Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance
  • Song of the Day: The Good Life
  • Song of the Day: Make Someone Happy
  • Song of the Day: The Song Is Ended
  • Home
  • About
  • Song of the Day
  • Album of the Week
  • Music and Art
  • And More
  • The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography

Copyright © 2023 The Year of Tony Bennett · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress