The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has named Denver School of the Arts as one of five schools to receive the Creative Ticket National School of Distinction award for the 2002-2003 school year. The award recognizes schools that have done an outstanding job of making the arts an essential part of the education of their students. Each school will receive a cash award to support their arts education program.

The awards program is an initiative of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network (KCAAEN), a coalition of 44 statewide, non-profit organizations that work with the Kennedy Center to ensure that the arts are an integral part of American education. The KCAAEN brings together educators, school administrators, parents, cultural leaders and citizens from across the nation, reaching more than three million people each year.

Included with the award is a check for $500, an awards plaque and an invitation to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in March 2004 .

“This is so exciting; we’re honored and thrilled,” said Pattie Bippus, principal of Denver School of the Arts.

The winners of the award were selected from 20 schools identified by their state Alliance for Arts Education as ‘Creative Ticket Schools of Excellence.’ Selection criteria at the national level included a review of the ways in which arts education is an essential component of the school curriculum; how the program creates and uses imaginative learning environments for teaching and learning in, through and about the arts; how the arts program provides opportunities for learning about other cultures through the arts, and how the program links arts education to community cultural resources.

Denver School of the Arts is the Rocky Mountain region’s only public school with a primary focus on the arts. This magnet program draws students from Denver and surrounding areas in grades six through 12. Created in the late 1980s, this urban school grew from a conviction that passion for the arts could correlate directly with academic achievement. Students audition for admission through one of three major arts programs: Fine and Practical Arts, Music and Performing Arts (dance and theater). Students select from additional arts electives to complement their major areas of artistic study. The school enjoys numerous partnerships with Denver cultural groups as well as guest artists. At DSA, the arts are taught both as separate disciplines and integrated with academic subjects.

DSA is the only urban high school that earned a rating of “excellent” under the state of Colorado’s school accountability system. In its short history DSA students and graduates have graced the stages of Broadway and the Kennedy Center and performed internationally with the Essentially Ellington Tour and the Scottish Thespian Fringe Festival.

Other schools to win the award this year were The Classical Academy in Colorado Springs; Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans; Rollings Middle School of the Arts in Summerville, South Carolina; and Glendale High School in Glendale, California.

DSA begins the 2003-2004 school year in a new facility at 7111 Montview Blvd. The school telephone number is 303-321-9435.

For more information about the awards, please contact Rae Bazzarre, 202-416-8441, rbazzarre@kennedy-center.org.