Fine & Performing Arts

Matthew Lorenzetti
Supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts / Gifted and Talented

Administration Building
2 East Gibbons Street
Linden, NJ 07036
Phone: 908-486-2800 x8026
Fax: 908-587-9604
mlorenzetti@lindenps.org

Fine & Performing Arts Department Philosophy

We in the Linden Public Schools believe that the basic purpose of fine and performing arts education K to12 is to develop and nurture the students’ skills as performers, creators, organizers, observers and evaluators. Our program is the study of the wide-range of disciplines that contain band, choir, dance, drama, musical theatre, orchestra, and visual art as well as, appropriate content from the humanities and the sciences.

We believe and accept the idea that the study of the fine and performing arts:

  • Cultivates the whole person, engaging the mind, body and spirit.
  • Builds many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, dexterity and imagination.
  • Invites multiple ways of knowing which actively engage the brain learning.
  • Fosters unique, vital forms of communication, bringing excitement and exhilaration to the learning process.
  • Embraces ambiguity-encouraging students to wonder and question.
  • Develops both individual initiative and collective responsibility.
  • Connects cultures and generations, past and present.
  • Integrates the arts into other subjects as well as incorporating mathematics, language arts, history, and science into the fine & performing arts curriculum.
  • Has commonalities but must also be respected as a distinct discipline.

We believe the primary goal of our fine & performing arts program will allow young people to nurture a positive self-image by developing self-awareness and self-discipline. We believe the teaching of art & music in the Linden Public Schools encourages students to be fluent in thought, flexible in acceptance, sensitive to feeling, creative in experimentation, aware of moral attitudes, inventive in their work, imaginative in creation, poised in presentation, cooperative in social interactions and appreciative of the work of others.

 

Fine & Performing Arts Department Goals

It is the goal of the music department to give the students of Linden Public Schools an opportunity to investigate the diverse areas in music open to them and let them choose and explore those to their liking. It is our desire that the students will gain a background in the basics of music. They will develop an appreciation of music and enrich the quality of their lives now and in the future. This revised K-8 music curriculum includes the six elements of music: rhythm, melody, harmony, tone color, form and expression. Originality, creativity and self-expression are stressed throughout each lesson taught. A scope and sequence is evident in this curriculum, as well as an understanding of the student’s growth and development in music.

Additional goals will:

  1. Provide the opportunity for students to develop skills to express feelings and ideas through music production.
  2. Present the music program as a creative challenge to all students providing for skill development in the area of critical thinking and problem solving.
  3. Give students an opportunity to explore music in the context of personal interests and aptitude including the development of communication skills both verbal and written.
  4. Encourage students to achieve an appreciation of music, which will assist them in understanding its use and value historically and culturally.
  5. Reinforce the interconnectedness between the study of art, music, mathematics, history, creative writing and literature.
  6. Develop student awareness of the relationship of music with important aspects of daily living including its necessary functions for various career pursuits.
  7. Provide the opportunity for visibility of the school music program via students’ concerts as both a reflection of student achievement and a vehicle to communicate the value of music education to the community.