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DocuSign Envelope ID: 16527E62-848E-428A-BF83-02D57E8435C9 <br /> The support for the arts is alive and well at Phillips Middle School. The PTSA provides <br /> additional financial support to the band, orchestra and arts programs. PTSA money is <br /> used for much-needed items such as band instruments, music, stands and art supplies. <br /> The PTSA also organizes and promotes fundraising activities for the school community <br /> in conjunction with the scheduled music performances by the band and orchestra to <br /> provide additional funding to these successful programs. <br /> Visual Arts at Phillips this year is focused on creating a gallery space in which student <br /> artwork hangs in frames in a series of hallways. The framed work as well as other work <br /> on the walls is being used as a springboard to communicate about art, media and <br /> techniques, subject matter, and choices that artists make. The AVID (Advancement Via <br /> Individual Determination) classes regularly use these works as writing prompts. The <br /> gallery is still a work in progress and will continue to expand and improve throughout the <br /> coming years. The other focus in the Visual Arts this year is to incorporate more <br /> technology use in the arts and to create digital art. Eighth graders have done work with <br /> an online color wheel to learn about color theory and they will be creating a digital <br /> surrealist and/or cubist work in the near future. The projects such as landscaping, <br /> perspective, portraiture, sculptures and pottery continue to be the crux of the art <br /> program at Phillips. This year, the "Visual Journal class" (part of the new enrichment <br /> sessions offered at Phillips)* will go to downtown Chapel Hill and to the Ackland in <br /> December for a "Then and Now"tour where students look at the history of Chapel Hill <br /> and its art. <br /> This year the Phillips Orchestra program has 152 students in five classes which meet <br /> daily for 47 minutes. Students who cannot afford an instrument are provided a school <br /> instrument purchased through donations or through SKAJAJA, a local organization that <br /> helps fund programs benefitting students in need. Last year, the eighth grade orchestra <br /> performed at the NC annual NC Awards in November where six North Carolina <br /> residents were recipients of the highest honor given to civilians by the state in the area <br /> of arts and in public service. In October of last year, Banda Magda, a multicultural music <br /> ensemble, joined the Phillips Orchestra for a three-day Artist in Residence program and <br /> performed a combined concert. Students were exposed to Grammy award-winning <br /> professional musicians and gained knowledge of a different style of music based on <br /> Latin groove rhythms. Banda Magda will be coming back to Phillips this year in February <br /> for another residency. Additionally, students received straight superior ratings at the <br /> state orchestra contest last year and received the highest score in sight reading of any <br /> orchestra in attendance at the event. Sixteen Phillips orchestra students auditioned and <br /> Ir <br /> were accepted into the Junior Eastern Regional All State Orchestra last year. <br /> The Phillips band program got a new director last year, Ashley Sample, after our long- <br /> time director Jane Cutchin retired. The school could not be more pleased with Mr. <br /> Sample and the work he has done to keep the band program thriving. The band <br />