Polk County Public Schools
Lake Wales’ McLaughlin Middle will hold an open house for the public of its new Fine Arts Academy on Thursday, April 24 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Fine Arts Academy began with the start of the 2007-2008 school year. The school added intensive dance, music, theatre and visual arts programs. The school district provided almost $2.4 million to enhance facilities and purchase materials, musical instruments and supplies.
The school has new or upgraded band, chorus and rehearsal rooms, a dance studio, a “black box” theater classroom, an art gallery and rooms for drawing, painting, printmaking, pottery, sculpture, graphic arts and photography.
The open house will include tours, student performances, exhibits and displays of student work. McLaughlin Middle is located at 800 South Fourth Street, Lake Wales. Contact Madalyn Walton at (863) 679-4466 for further information on the open house or the Fine Arts Academy.
Curriculum And Enrollment: The school has an arts-infused curriculum. It is a traditional middle school with an arts emphasis. It does not require special enrollment requirements. Any student zoned and enrolled for McLaughlin can participate in any of its arts programs.
Facility Highlights:
--Band, chorus and orchestra rehearsal rooms. A 24-station piano keyboard laboratory and guitar classrooms are included.
--Dance studio with ballet barres and three-walled mirror. Dance studio includes dressing rooms.
--“ Black box” theater classroom with shop for creating sceneries.
--Art gallery.
--Main performance stage with newly installed theatrical lighting and sound.
--Visual arts facilities include two-dimensional room for drawing, painting and printmaking. Three-dimensional pottery and sculpture room with five potter’s wheels and two kilns.
--Graphic arts room includes 24-station computer laboratory with Adobe Creative Suites and Photoshop for processing digital imagery.
Faculty Highlights: Nine Fine Arts Academy teachers. School provides training to teachers in other subject areas on how to infuse the arts into their instruction. Guest artists supplement teacher instruction. The Lake Wales Arts Center and Imperial Symphony Orchestra have also been involved with instruction. Grammy-award winning composer and violinist Mark O’Connor has conducted masterclasses for McLaughlin strings students.