The Arizona State Seal of Arts Proficiency has been handed out to 5 hard-working students who will receive a seal on their diploma, a cord draped on their necks to wear while walking at graduation, and $1,000 in scholarship money for those who choose a fine-arts path in college. The selection process was a long and tiring one, each of the five students did loads of paperwork and planning to get this reward.

The objectives that the seal focuses on are:

• “To celebrate students who demonstrate high levels of proficiency in the Arizona Arts Education Standards through personal expression and creative experiences in arts education programs.”
• “To identify pathways of artistic literacy that cultivate skills for 21st-century success.”
• “To prepare students for college and career readiness, including active participation in the creative industries sector.”
• “To promote increased access to well-rounded, high-quality arts education across the state.”

Each student went through the same difficult and time-consuming process of selecting a project to do, organizing their creative process, completing the paperwork, and fulfilling all the harsh requirements to get the state seal… and they all totally crushed it! They each had to have 60 hours of work in the documented arts and four years of art credits and average a “B” each year.

Lanie DuVall, did a lovely composition (untitled), and in one day alone she spent 4 hours doing the program! She traveled to Palo Verde High School to work with on the finale, which is a computer program. On a full-sized keyboard, she had to place the piece as perfectly as she could to get it all right down in the program and had to fix it too.  She did a piano piece which she wrote herself and then performed it! it wite it she took parts of other songs she knew she liked and thought would sound well together in a different key or a slight note difference and put it all together! She even performed it on a stage in front of an entire round. She amazed the round with her skill at playing and writing music.

Cat Blessing did a mural on their backyard wall for their grandfather who passed away. It took them hours to paint and plan. They had to use spray paint, a hard medium to use, which they had to get more familiar with usinig. Despite these challenges, they did wonderfully. They even presented it to their family afterword too, not only was this a amazing thing for school, but for Cat’s family as well.

Brigitta Petty, composed a song for the Sahuaro advanced choir to preform in an after school concert! The song took about a month, and she did wonderfully! Her song was about a rain storm and the people that wanted to be in it. Her classmates did wonderful and crushed the song!

Josie Shivers did a dance video! She had to perform the dance four different times, and then edit all of the takes together seamlessly. She went to three different locations to film, and choose the song Apple tree. The theme is a release of her emotions. After Covid-19 and everything that she experienced, this was her way of moving on.

Simone Davis Preformed 4 songs as a pre-concert for a choir perform, the whole thing took her around 3 months to plan out and learn. She sung: Strange, At Last, Vavire, and Habibi. She blew the crowd away with her skill and left them stunned. Definely an amazing opener!