Daniel Côté, OCT, mixes a gallon of paint as his students sit at their drawing tables, working.

“I don’t want you to draw a tree or a flower,” says Côté. Today’s exercise is not about representing something, it’s about paint.

“If I tap my paintbrush or a sponge, if I make curvy lines, those are all ways of applying paint. You can even use the tips of your fingers.”

The bright, airy room looks more like an artist’s studio than a high school classroom. Students’ artwork is displayed on easels; vases, pitchers and urns, used for still-life drawing and painting, are lined up on shelves; and photographic lighting equipment is set up at one end of the room. Posters from recent exhibitions, including one that students recently visited at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, decorate the walls.

The painting exercise is an exploration of colour and texture in preparation for a provincial contest called Projet vert, sponsored by l’Association francophone pour l’éducation artistique en Ontario and BRAVO (Bureau de regroupement des artistes visuels de l’Ontario). Daniel Côté’s students at école secondaire catholique Béatrice-Desloges in Orléans took part in the contest last year, exhibited their works at a Toronto gallery, and landed the two top prizes.

According to Côté, école Béatrice-Desloges has always had a reputation for teaching the arts, thanks to a former principal at the school who believed that they were as important as sports. Then, eight years ago, the school board asked the staff at Béatrice-Desloges to create a Programme spécialisé en arts (PSA). “Our board had specializations in every subject but the arts,” says Côté.

The next step came in 2006–07, when the school piloted a Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM or major) in the visual arts, music and theatre. Daniel Côté co-ordinates this major program, now in its fifth year, in addition to teaching visual arts at école Béatrice-Desloges.

The Ontario Ministry of Education offers 18 different SHSMs, in such diverse areas as agriculture, aviation and aerospace, business, construction, forestry, and hospitality and tourism. The SHSM in arts and culture is offered in Grades 11 and 12 and covers a variety of disciplines – dance, visual arts, music, dramatic and media arts – as well as a range of technical production skills.

An SHSM involves a bundle of eight to ten courses in a particular field. It is intended for students heading for an apprenticeship, college, university or the workplace. Students who complete the program receive an SHSM record documenting their achievement, formal recognition on their school transcript and a special designation – in the form of an embossed red seal – on their secondary school diploma.

The idea behind specialization is to keep young people in school by offering them stimulating programs in specific economic sectors that can tap into their skills, interests and passions and increase their sense of relevance and direction.

Currently at école Béatrice-Desloges, about one-quarter of the approximately 1,000 students are enrolled in the arts-based PSA, and 28 students are doing an SHSM in arts and culture.

Students in the PSA have one art class per day; those in the major have one or more per day. Depending on their area of concentration, it may be a band practice, theatre lesson or visual-art studio class. In addition there are community-based experiential learning requirements, or co-ops. Students may be placed with a local arts council, community theatre or professional orchestra, in an architect’s or graphic designer’s office or at a local television station. One of the challenges for SHSM teachers is finding good co-op opportunities for their students.

The idea behind specialization is to keep young people in school.

The major also provides reach-ahead experiences: Students take part in competitions and exhibitions in art galleries or visit artists’ studios or recording studios. Musicians, artists and actors come to the school to give workshops and talks on their chosen professions. The SHSM also requires that students take certification or training programs that teach specific skills. At Béatrice Desloges, these have included activities as varied as musical-instrument repair, stage makeup, and foot taping for dance performance.

Côté claims that this practical experience gives students a chance to explore their options and see if they’re really serious about a particular field. By meeting artists, doing internships and getting specialized training, they have the chance to find out if they’ve made the right career choice and, if not, to reorient themselves.

“Almost all these students will eventually find jobs or do postsecondary studies in the arts. However, even those who don’t remain interested in art as a career have understood the importance of art in their lives, just as someone who has always been involved in sports can’t just give up sports if he wants to maintain a certain balance in his life. The arts play the same role.”

He recalls one student who did a co-op in a graphic-design studio and soon realized that spending 95 per cent of her time staring at a computer screen just was not for her. But the designers she was working with recognized her strengths and suggested that she consider illustration – they pointed out that if she specialized in that field she wouldn’t need to spend all day in front of a computer and she could freelance, working for various graphic designers.

Adaptable explorations

“The arts and culture major is probably one of the best programs in Ontario,” says Grade 11 student Jean-Patrick, who is doing a double major in visual arts and architecture at école Béatrice-Desloges. He adds that people from outside the area have begun applying to Béatrice-Desloges specifically for this program because it offers the opportunity to do two co-ops – or even more if students want to – in different areas related to the arts. “The program really allows you to explore as many areas as possible.”

It’s tailor made for someone like Jean-Patrick, who has two great passions: architecture, his first career choice, and theatre, which he says he’ll pursue if he doesn’t get into architecture school. Last summer he did a co-op in an architect’s office; this year he’s planning to do a second, with a theatre company.

“The major has many more advantages than the specialization. I’m more in control of what I want,” says Julie, another theatre major. For her co-op, she’s spending half of every school day working as an administrative assistant with Théâtre in vivo, an Ottawa company that explores multidisciplinary arts such as circus, acrobatics, dance, music, street theatre, stilt walking, and tales and legends. The other half day, she takes theatre classes as well as one required pre-university course. And after school, she rehearses with the school’s theatre troupe, La bande de la douze. As for her long-term goals: “I would really like to work in the arts, to design sets or to become an actor or director. My plan B? To teach theatre at the high-school level.”

According to Daniel Côté, parents also recognize the results of practical experience in the workplace. After a co-op experience, one student’s father told Côté, “From week to week I saw my son’s interest growing. I even noticed that there was a difference in his vocabulary when he talked about his internship experience.” The student’s exchange with the professionals he had come into contact with was clearly having an effect.

“When it comes to decision making, the experience is significant.” says David Dufour, OCT, who teaches theatre at école Beatrice-Desloges and has just finished giving a class in collective creation in the art of clowning. As an example, he cites a course his students will take next semester, Gestion d’évènement artistique, in which they will learn to manage a complex event – a gala for the PSA. “They’ll do it all, from A to Z: the concept, lighting, presentation, invitations, reserving the hall, planning how the show will unfold. It gives them another tangible experience.”

Critical benefits

But not everyone shares Dufour’s enthusiasm for the arts and culture SHSM. Some teachers describe the major as a marketing tool for the Ministry and the school boards. They call the SHSM label “jargon” and claim that teachers have taught art at the same high level for years, offering a whole range of courses and awakening the creative process without the benefit of the major.

Some of these teachers say that students at this level are still too young to concentrate on one area of learning and should be encouraged to explore a variety of interests. In some cases they may have difficulty choosing a single discipline to focus on because they show talent in a number of areas.

And, as the major is only in its fifth year, it may still be too soon to claim concrete or clear results.

The major is advantageous for students who are already highly motivated and who do well in school.

Still, Côté thinks the major has made a real difference: “I’ve always had students who pursued careers in the arts, but since we’ve had the specialization and the major in the arts, the numbers have increased because the work we do with these students is different,” he says, referring to the co-ops, reach-ahead experience and technical-skills courses.

Dufour takes issue with teachers who call the SHSM a marketing tool: “I don’t agree. The people in the major benefit from a more in-depth experience.”

He cites students like Julie, who is doing co-ops with local theatre companies and seeing aspects of the theatre other than acting and directing. “They see the administrative and management aspects, they make contacts in the community. That’s part of being successful as a person and also as a young artist. Making contacts when you’re still in high school is a valuable experience on many levels.”

But, says Dufour, even if his students in the SHSM are keen, disciplined and engaged, that doesn’t guarantee that they will pursue studies in theatre after graduating from high school. He feels that there are advantages beyond any specific career training and likes to consider the wider applications for what his students learn.

“The theatre is a micro-society. In class you learn to work as a team and with all sorts of personalities; you develop group strategies. Our theatre course really focuses on the individual, on creating individuals who will be solid on a social level and who will be proud of being in the arts, being a consumer of the arts, going to see a show and being able to say more than, ‘I liked the show; the actors were good,’ They will who will have a critical sense and will appreciate the creative process.”

Dufour also acknowledges that for some students, having a class in visual arts, theatre or music each day is what keeps them in school through Grade 12. “ It’s the sunshine in their day,” he says.

The program helps at-risk students to be interested in school and to maintain good marks in other classes as well. But, says Dufour, the major is advantageous for students who are already highly motivated and who do well in school. “I have a student who is extremely talented and a high achiever. He gets incredible grades in all his classes. For him, this is a way to take a break from the rigid structure of maths and sciences, to lose himself in his creativity, to take a breather.”

The school’s a stage

École Macdonald-Cartier in Sudbury has a specialized arts program in Grades 9 and 10 called Le Centre d’exploration des métiers des arts de la scène. Students from the program are often recruited for the school’s major in visual arts, music or theatre. They take part in art competitions, show their work in local art galleries, put out a literary magazine, and have formed a group of musicians, Groupe 17, which tours the region performing for schools and community groups. In 2010 the program produced an attractive art catalogue, presenting the work – painting, sculpture, poetry, prose, theatre and music – of students in the major. “We can predict that these students are going to be successful and we prepare them accordingly,” says visual-arts teacher Artina Voz, OCT.

Voz finds that when opting for the major, students think hard about choosing between courses in the arts and those in maths and sciences because they know this can influence the direction they take later in college or university.

Another Sudbury high school, Collège Notre-Dame, has courses in visual and media arts, music, theatre and dance, yet doesn’t offer the SHSM. According to visual-arts teacher Julie Courtemanche, OCT, former principal Sister Rachelle Watier was both a firm believer in the importance of art education and a real innovator – “She was the first person to have an interactive whiteboard in her art class!” – and she left her imprint on the school.

Following high school, a number of Courtemanche’s students go on to pursue studies in graphic design, animation, architecture and art history. Through the grapevine she’s heard remarks made by teachers at Cambrian College in Sudbury: “They say that of all their students, those who come from Collège Notre-Dame are the most prepared for the graphic design program.” She also speaks with pride of a former student, Elia Eliev.

After high school, Eliev completed his BA in visual arts at the University of Ottawa, went on to do a Masters at Geneva University of Art and Design in Switzerland, and taught in Finland before returning to Sudbury, where he currently teaches at Thorneloe University in addition to pursuing his own practice as an artist-researcher interested in social phenomena.

At Collège Notre-Dame he studied languages and general culture as well as visual arts, which he says allowed him to develop a critical sense. “The path I took in high school really prepared me for the type of education I got in Switzerland, in transdisciplinarity.” However, he says that a program like the SHSM might have given him other advantages.

“If I’d had the opportunity to meet an artist or a professor of art who could have explained their career path to me, it would have been very helpful,” says Eliev. “It’s a difficult career; it’s a very competitive field, and we don’t get much recognition from the general population.”

Students in the PSA or the arts and culture SHSM who choose to continue their studies in French have a variety of options – whether it’s graphic design or a brand new program called Techniques et gestion de la scène, both at Collège Boréal, a BA in theatre at l’Université Laurentienne or one in visual arts at l’Université du Québec en Outaouais. There are still other possibilities in Montréal, Québec City and Moncton, to mention just a few. Off the top of his head, Daniel Côté lists former students and where they are now: one at the école nationale de l’humour in Montréal; two in Toronto – one studying theatre, the other film; and a number at la Cité collégiale, Ottawa – in visual arts, 3D animation and sound engineering. About Jérémie Lortie, a former student in the SHSM now studying art and science de l’animation at Université Laval in Québec City, Côté says, “He’s having an incredible time. He’s convinced that he’s in the right place and that he made the right choices. He’s growing by leaps and bounds.”

Lortie is enthusiastic about his experience at Béatrice-Desloges. “I loved it. It’s an experience that allows you to see the arts from several angles: media arts, contemporary art, and the visual arts,” In particular, he says the two co-ops he did in Grade 12, one in video production, the other in animation, were determining factors in his decision to continue his studies in the arts. “At Laval, students from Québec who had done three years of animation at CEGEP had an extra foundation. But at the same time, when it comes to artistic sensibility or creativity and imagination, the major really prepared me for university and for everything that one can do in art.”

The major really prepared me for university.

Another graduate of Béatrice-Desloges, Gabrielle Porter, is in her second semester at McGill University, studying the tuba. In high school she chose the PSA over the SHSM because she wanted to keep her options open and take science as well as music courses. She didn’t decide to go into music until Grade 11, when it was too late to switch into the major. Now she has regrets. “When I look back, I would have liked to do an internship in a musical environment and focus on my art.” Still, she says, the PSA gave her many opportunities, courses such as Maths through the Arts and French through the Arts in addition to music clinics and workshops, and exposure to specialists who visited the school.

An important part of Daniel Côté’s job is convincing parents that their son or daughter will be able to earn a living if he or she goes into the arts. As an example, he describes a family where one parent is an engineer and the other an accountant, where he might meet some resistance to the idea of their child pursuing a career in the arts. “When they realize that their child can go to university and do a double major or do an extra year and study visual arts and science, or theatre and communications, they are reassured.” In families where there is already an interest in the arts, his job is easier. And he’s noticed that, in general, people’s attitudes are changing. “Ten years ago people were more closed-minded; now I hear a lot more of, ‘I want my child to be happy; I want him to do something he really likes.’ Maybe that’s because here in the Ottawa region we’ve heard so much about burnouts in public service and about people who don’t like their work, and they don’t want their children to go through that.”

He gives parents examples of former students who graduated from the arts program at Béatrice-Desloges and who now work in museums, galleries and and production studios or have good jobs in arts management in the non-profit sector. “I don’t know of a single one who is on welfare. They don’t all make a living from their art, but some of them have other jobs and do their art part-time and are very happy with this kind of balance in their life. So I explain all that to parents.”

“The PSA is where I discovered my identity as a musician and as an artist,” says Gabrielle Porter. “With my fellow students, my musical family, I experienced great times, great trips, great festivals. Because I played with them every day, by the time I got to McGill I knew exactly what my goal was, where I wanted to be when I complete my BA.” She highly recommends a program like the PSA or the SHSM. “Even for someone who doesn’t plan on having a career in the arts – simply for the experience of having art, and its beauty, as a part of your life.”