Black Rock - Center for the arts

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BlackRock Center for the Arts exists to inspire the community to explore, experience, engage and excite through the arts. We strive to provide quality programs that develop lifelong participants in the arts. We believe in offering quality programs that are accessible and affordable to as many families and individuals as possible. BlackRock Center for the Arts provides classes in the visual arts, dance, music and theater for all ages, from pre-school to adults. In addition, we have summer arts camps that serve pre-schoolers and students from kindergarten-grade 8.

Our Philosophy

BlackRock Center for the Arts' education department is committed to providing an artistic outlet for Montgomery County residents, particularly in the upcounty area, through creative, affordable and diverse classes in a nurturing, positive and safe learning environment. At BlackRock, persons of all ages are encouraged to find his or her own unique voice while exploring the creative process within a community of their peers. We believe that when we become immersed in the creative process, we are instilled with a personal sense of responsibility as well as the potential to discover the freedom and the courage to perform with confidence and self-respect.

Benefits of Arts Education

The Arts Education in Maryland School Alliance (AEMS), initiated by the Maryland State Arts Council in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education, makes the case for the critical links between arts education and academic, social and motivational skills, in Making the Connection Between Arts Education and Current Research (2005). The following six major areas were identified:

1) Reading and Language Development:

a) Basic Reading Skills: Certain forms of arts instruction enhance and complement basic reading instruction aimed at helping children "break the phonetic code."

b) Literacy: When young children are engaged in dramatic enactment of stories and text their reading comprehension, story understanding, and ability to read new materials improves. The effects are even more significant for children from economically disadvantaged circumstances and for those with reading difficulties in the early and middle grades.

2) Mathematics:

Training in keyboard skills develops spatial reasoning, and spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which are fundamental to understanding and using mathematical ideas and concepts.

3) Fundamental Cognitive Skills and Capacities:

Learning in individual art forms as well as in multi-arts experiences engages and strengthens such fundamental cognitive capacities as spatial reasoning, problem solving and the components of creative thinking.

4) Motivations to Learn:

Learning in the arts nurtures discipline and sustained attention, persistence and risk-taking and increases attendance and educational aspirations.

5) Effective Social Behavior:

Studies of students learning in the arts have shown steady growth in self-confidence, self-control, self-identity, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy and social tolerance.

6) School Environment:

The arts help create conducive learning environments by increasing student attendance and retention, effective instructional practice, and school identity.