Did you know that Coronado High School offers an after-school arts conservatory for its students? The Coronado School of the Arts, better known as CoSA, is beginning its 21st year at Coronado High School.
CoSA students–200 CHS students–finish their regular classes at 1:30pm each day and then spend an extra three hours in the art conservatory, studying one of six different art forms: Technical Theatre, Classical and Contemporary Dance, Digital Media, Instrumental Music, Musical Theatre and Drama, and Visual Arts.
CoSA has always been a place for high school students to explore the arts and get started early on their dreams. Now, as of this fall, CoSA is trying to make that a reality for even more students.
“The CoSA Foundation switched to Coronado Arts Education Foundation (CAEF),” explains Shane Schmeichel, Director of CoSA, “and we have changed our vision and mission to be inclusive to include arts education for all, beginning in Pre-K. CoSA will continue to be CAEF’s largest program, but we are partnering with Coronado Schools Foundation and Coronado Cultural Arts Commission and, of course, CUSD to support arts for all students.”
What is CoSA’s biggest goal with this change? “Every school-aged child deserves arts experiences in all the arts forms every year,” says Shane. “Unfortunately, the state does not provide those funds, so we are going to help CUSD to achieve that goal.”
Emily Bosworth is the President of the CAEF Board, and she previously served as a board member for two years for the CoSA Foundation. “I’m most excited about the opportunity to expand arts experiences into the lower grades,” she says. “Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to expand the arts experience for Coronado students who are not in CoSA but want an arts experience.”
Emily’s children are perfect examples of how CAEF can serve students better. Her daughter is a senior this year, and CoSA was an easy choice for her because she’s always loved dance. Emily’s son, however, is torn between digital media and water polo. He got into CoSA, but at the last minute he chose to withdraw and take the single Digital Media elective instead because he knew what a time commitment CoSA would be. Emily hopes that CAEF will be able to offer more opportunities for arts education to all ages now, and that non-CoSA students will have even more course offerings in the future.
“I am doing this because I feel so passionately about providing arts education for this community. CoSA, and by extension all the other arts opportunities we are providing, is surely a jewel we have here in Coronado, and we all need to do everything we can to sustain it and to help it grow and expand and improve. That is why I do what I do.”
Shane explains more about CAEF’s goals. “We have a lot of dreams about what we want to offer kids in this community,” he says. Here are a few of CoSA’s recent initiatives leading up to the change to CAEF:
- A summer program called Coronado Summer Art Intensive for high school students.
- Afternoon Arts. The initiative piloted last spring with art classes for all ages. This year the program expands to include three sessions with visual arts, game design, drama, and dance for all ages.
- A young-age strings program. The course is available at Village Elementary School two days a week.
- Coronado Youth Theatre is in its inaugural year. This fall, elementary and middle school-aged children will put on an adapted version of The Wizard of Oz. In the spring CoSA will partner with with CAEF and CSF for another musical.
- A class with the Cultural Arts Commission about art installation. Students will learn about making art to display for the public and also the process by which that occurs. Some of the students’ work will be chosen to be put on utility boxes in Coronado.
“Of course,” says Shane, “those are all courses that people have to pay for. Ultimately we want to bring in donors and businesses so we can provide more opportunities in all our sites: Village Elementary, Silver Strand Elementary, Coronado Middle School, Coronado High School, and Palm Academy.”
Shane also mentioned that he is thrilled about their new board, which includes the incoming Foundation President, Emily Bosworth, returning Treasurer Raj Argawal, Shane Schmeichel, and a host of new members; Rita Boland, Matt Zagrodzky, Cyndi Fuhrmann, Bertha Tsai-Tulagan, Patricia Buckley, Amy Moreno, Mitch Brucker, Meegan Nolan, and Tara Graviss.
There is more good news: Shane and the board do not desire to limit all the benefits of CAEF to Coronado public school students.
“Officially in our statement it says ‘children in Coronado,'” explains Shane, “which might also include private schools and homeschoolers. Students can be invited to enjoy a performance for free, we can share guest artists, they can pay for classes, we can do a performance project together–really the ideas are endless. Perhaps the foundation could work together to sponsor 10 guest artists for homeschooled and private school students in Coronado. It opens the doors for integration and sharing and even directly supporting if and when possible.”
How can you as a community member enjoy the benefits of the Coronado Arts Education Foundation and our local arts conservatory? Besides helping with your own dollars and connections, Shane encourages the community to attend Fall for the Arts, which will be held Friday, October 21, from 5-8pm on the CHS quad. Guests can eat dinner, look at artists’ work, and watch performances at this artistic fall festival. This is just one chance to glimpse what the future holds for all children in Coronado who love the arts.
For more information, visit CoSASanDiego.com.
