What Is the Arizona Arts Proficiency Seal?
In 2019, the Arizona governor signed a bill into law that created the State Seal of Arts Proficiency. This seal was to be affixed to the high school diplomas of graduating students who have completed a program of arts study. The prestigious award sets students apart when they apply to colleges or for scholarships.
What Is the Art Seal?
The Art Seal is a learning opportunity that is project-based and shows the student’s knowledge and education in one of the art disciplines. It includes a capstone project to demonstrate mastery of the Arizona Arts Education Standards. You can get started by contacting the Arts Educator at your teen’s high school campus.
The goal of the Art Seal is to recognize students with high proficiency levels in the Arizona Arts Education Standards through arts education programs. This program also helps to prepare students for college and to increase access to quality arts education throughout the state of Arizona. The Arizona State Seal of Arts Proficiency identifies paths in the arts to help students develop skills for success.
Reasons to Participate and Requirements
You’ll find several benefits of participating in the program. It will give your student a real-world experience in your chosen field of art. You receive an Art Seal on your diploma when you graduate. This seal demonstrates that you mastered an art form, which will set you apart when you apply to a college.
To qualify for the seal, you must have a final GPA of 3.0 or 4.0 in each technical education and arts/career course you take in high school. You must complete four minimum credit requirements with these options:
Four credits in one artistic discipline
Three credits in one artistic discipline and one in creative industries
Two credits in one artistic discipline and two credits in creative industries
The artistic disciplines include media arts, visual arts, dance, music, and theatre. You must also have 80 hours of extracurricular activities related to the arts. As a final step, you’ll complete a student capstone project in your area of study, which demonstrates what you’ve learned. The capstone project is the application of real-world skills, which is usually done outside of the classroom. It must be measurable and rigorous, meeting state standards, and completed outside of the school day. The project must be meaningful in scope, and it can be combined with multiple disciplines. For instance, if your area of focus is on the theater, you can combine music or dance and the theater. An example of a capstone project in this area would be to write and perform a one-act play or create and perform your original show with an ensemble. You might choreograph a dance or musical number for a musical or stage production.
If music is your specialty, you might compose and perform an original song, create an underscore for a production, or select the music for an ensemble and conduct the performance. If you choose visual art, you could lead an art exhibition or create art lessons and teach a class in a community program.
If you want to give your teen a quality education that aligns with their interests and goals and take advantage of the Art Seal, consider Leading Edge Academy. We offer several campuses with small classrooms to help your child learn. Contact us to learn more or enroll online.