The purpose of the Fine Arts Program, K-12, in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is to provide every child with a well-rounded, sequential, cumulative, and comprehensive arts education. Through studies in the arts, students will gain essential knowledge as defined by the National Standards for Education in the Arts and The Fine Arts Standards of Learning (SOL) for Virginia Public Schools.

An education in the arts benefits Fairfax County Public School students by helping them gain powerful tools for:

• understanding human experiences, both past and present.
• learning to adapt to and respect other ways of thinking and working.
• learning to express artistic modes of problem solving that bring an array of analytical and technical tools to every human situation.
• understanding the influences of the arts and their power to relate to and reflect different cultures.
• understanding the impact of the arts on virtually all we use in daily life, and their interdependence with broader worlds of ideas and action.
• making decisions in situations where there are no standard answers.
• analyzing non-verbal communication and making informed judgments about cultural products and issues.
• communicating their thoughts and feelings in a variety of modes, giving them a vastly more powerful repertoire for self-expression.

A comprehensive, articulated arts education program engages students in a process that helps them develop the self-esteem, self-discipline, cooperation, and self-motivation necessary for success in life. It is the goal of the Fine Arts Program to ensure that all students in FCPS have access to the rich education and understanding that the arts provide.