NMSA News:
HOUSTON — The Arts Schools Network Board of Directors has named the New Mexico School for the Arts an Exemplary School in recognition of its commitment to excellence. The five-year designation is awarded for 2025-2030.
Arts Schools Network (ASN), the nation’s largest professional membership organization of specialized arts schools, awards Exemplary School designations to members that follow A Guide to Assessing Your Arts School in strategically evaluating their school’s purpose, operations, and educational programs. The Guide is a collaborative effort by ASN and the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). ASN will honor the school at the Awards Ceremony during the ASN 2025 Annual Conference, in Sarasota, Florida. The conference theme is Big Top, Bigger Arts and will be hosted by Booker Middle School.
New Mexico School for the Arts’s mission is to provide access to rigorous mastery art and academic high school education for youth with passion and aptitude in the arts, leading to post-secondary learning, art careers, and meaningful contributions to society. Its vision is to close the opportunity gap by attracting and retaining students from across New Mexico who have the passion and aptitude for the arts and who might not otherwise have access to both formal arts training and a college readiness program.
The school is dedicated to bridging the educational gap, providing support and resources to transform the academic trajectories of their students. Since 2010, the school has provided rigorous college-readiness academics alongside over 2,000 hours per student of intensive, in-school, pre-professional arts training in five disciplines: Creative Writing & Literature, Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. “Mastery arts” means that the arts curricula are equally important to the academic ones. Students spend a typical day in academic studies and at 2 p.m., turn to three hours of arts training. Since opening, New Mexico School for the Arts has become one of the most successful high schools in New Mexico.
Dr. R. Scott Allen, Managing Director for ASN, said, “We offer guidance, inspiration, and incentives to arts school leaders who strive for excellence in their schools. When they demonstrate outstanding efforts toward this goal, as they do by following A Guide to Assessing Your Arts School, we recognize and reward their achievements with this designation.”
Dedicated to excellence and leadership in arts education, Arts Schools Network, a non- profit association founded in 1981, provides arts school leaders, innovative partners and members of arts education institutions with quality resources, support and networking opportunities. Visit www.artsschoolsnetwork.org to learn more.