Fine Arts

Across HISD, middles schools offer musical opportunities such as marching band, jazz band, ensembles, and full-fledged symphony orchestras. Many of our student musicians have developed a strong passion for music and made it their primary focus after graduation.

The Rice School Band Program is more than just a band class. It offers students hands-on experience that teaches the basic performance skills needed to play in school instrument ensembles. It also teaches students necessary life skills, such as responsibility, respect for others, effective preparation, problem solving, caring, communication, risk taking, personal accountability, punctuality, organization, and self-assessment.

The Music Department recognizes that music is universal and important for every child.  The Houston Independent School District’s Music Curriculum offers a comprehensive music framework that is tailored to meet the needs of each student; thereby, allowing them to be creative and experience the best that music has to offer, while giving the instructor the freedom to personalize the curriculum in a manner that is innovative and fresh for the learner.  As a result, students cultivate skills in critical thinking, coordination, engagement, cognitive development, emotional intelligence, personal discipline, self-confidence, and teamwork.  We believe that through meaningful musical experiences, students feed their intellectual curiosity and engage in a rigorous pursuit of knowledge to establish a clear understanding of collective intelligence while encouraging the arts in each student and nurturing future music professionals.  Students become critical and creative thinkers, collaborators, and communicators,  allowing them to develop into contributing members of their school, community and society.

The Visual Arts Department views every student as an emerging artist. The Art Curriculum is designed to give art teachers the freedom to deliver visual arts curriculum in a personalized manner, while ensuring all students throughout the district are experiencing the learning of similar information.  Art is important to the development of the whole child. Most of us recognize the importance of art in stimulating imagination and self-expression, but art has a significant role, as well, in developing critical thinking, self-discipline and cultural awareness. Our young artists develop abilities and habits of mind that complement their learning across the curriculum. We strive to encourage the artist in every child to help children to see, to understand and to appreciate the importance of creativity in our civilization.  They communicate ideas, using all available tools, analyze and respond to others' creative efforts as well as create, revise and reflect on their work to solve aesthetic problems while learning patience and resilience.