MASS High School Arts Magazine Spring Release

The Marble Collection Inc. is an educational nonprofit organization that cultivates and celebrates the creative accomplishments of Massachusetts youth by publishing the only statewide print and digital magazine of the arts for and by Massachusetts secondary students.

The Marble Collection: Massachusetts High School Magazine of the Arts, which features students’ literature, art, music and video works, announces the release of its Spring 2012 edition.

TMC works on-to-one with students to edit and critique their work before publication. By learning and partaking in the comprehensive publication process, students strengthen their artistic and academic aptitude.

“The Marble Collection is inspiring.  Learning of the endeavor sent ripples of excitement throughout our English Department, and being represented in such a first-rate magazine is a source of pride for our entire school,” states Robert Moulton, ELA Supervisor at Dracut Sr. High School.

While the impact of the arts on learning as well as personal and social development has been well documented, developing creativity in high schools is on a severe decline, resulting in serious, long-term implications for the future of Massachusetts students. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, 30 percent of districts have decreased instruction time for the arts. What’s more, Massachusetts cut $8.6 million in MCAS Support and After-School/Out-of-School programs in 2012. Not coincidentally, 10th grade performance on the English Language Arts portion of the MCAS test remained flat or declined in recent years. The narrow focus on only teaching the basics clearly has not been the answer, as 37 percent of Massachusetts young people—despite having earned their high school diplomas—still have to take remedial math and English to handle college level work.

First published in May 2009, the magazine’s participants have grown from 24 second­ary schools to more than 160 in just three years. The Massachusetts high school community responded to this publication with an outpouring of support, confirming that this venue fills a long ignored void in the creative sector.

“TMC offers students the opportunity to have their work evaluated and produced professionally. The final product is something for the published students to take great pride in and it also encourages them to keep writing. Creative thinkers are great contributors to society. They can imagine, problem solve and communicate. They deserve all the encouragement we can offer them to pursue these critical strengths,” writes Carla Panciera, Ipswich High School English Teacher.

With a sense of achievement and pride, students walk away from this program with two things: a hand-held aggregate of works, and a robust confidence in their abilities and future.

About The Marble Collection [TMC]           

TMC was founded in 2008 to enrich the Massachusetts high school community through educational literary and creative arts programming. The Marble Collection: Massachusetts High School Magazine of the Arts weaves the arts back into the fabric of our community, whereas TMC’s Student-Mentoring Workshop [SMW] provides students with one-to-one tutoring services to edit and critique their work before publication. Connecting the community through our interactive website (themarblecollection.org), TMC builds civic discourse and engages students in their creative potential. TMC envisions a community that cultivates and celebrates the literary and creative arts, in which we are the leading publisher and educator for developing teen media. TMC relies on grants, donations, sponsorships, subscriptions and advertising sales to support our programs. TMC dually functions as a college guide by featuring advertisements from postsecondary educational institutions, featuring advertisements from: Mount Holyoke College, The Art Institute of Boston, Northeastern University, UMass Dartmouth, Bentley University, and more.

For additional information on The Marble Collection, Inc. please visit http://www.themarblecollection.org.