March is both Arts Education Month and Youth Art Month.

Fittingly, there are lots of local arts offerings, with something just about every day. We have so many chances to celebrate the arts!

Three events in particular bring together multiple grade levels of student artists.

Class Notes on March 7th is a benefit concert for the district instrumental jazz program, which showcases jazz bands from McAuliffe, Oak, and LAHS, along with professional jazz artists. Headliners Wayne Bergeron, Bill Liston, Dan Higgins, are joined by some of our own music artist/educators in the Class Notes Big Band 2015. It promises to be a grand evening. This time of year is also jazz festival season, so we wish our own jazz students the best of luck.

Our many elementary, middle, and high school vocalists will fill Cottonwood Church on March 16th and dazzle the audience in the All District Choral Festival. This annual choral event follows other district wide concerts for band and orchestra, which took place in February.

“Reflections” is the national PTA arts promotion program for photography, literature, visual arts, dance choreography, musical composition, and video production. Everyone is invited to our PTA Council Reflections Gallery on March 25th to see the work of our many talented students.

We salute all participants, with special congratulations to

Grant Lock of LAE, who received an Award of Excellence in Photography for 4th District PTA. His photo will advance to the state level.

On behalf of our Alliance for Arts Education, I am continuing to work with our school district to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to benefit from arts education. We are exploring options for outside funding to improve our arts education efforts.

Take advantage of free admission to local museums;

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana is free on the first Sunday of the month (3/1). The Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) in Long Beach is free every Sunday.

SAVE the date: The Arts OC Creative Edge lecture series brings together the business, arts, and education communities to learn about and discuss the value of creativity in all endeavors. This year’s lecturer is Sarah Lewis, whose credentials include faculty of Yale School of Art, President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee, and Oprah’s 2010 “Power List”. She will present, “Breakthrough! What We All Can Learn from the World’s Greatest Innovators”. Early bird tickets are available for a limited time.