DOWAGIAC — Area students will have an opportunity to spend part of an upcoming school day learning about music, thanks to the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival.

As part of the 2018 Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, festival organizers have arranged a program called Klassics for Kids. The event, which is a private event for local schools, will take place at 1 p.m. May 10 at the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center. Representatives from the Southwestern Michigan College music department will put on a performance for Dowagiac area students, which will include performances from the SMC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jonathan Korzun, and the SMC Select Voices Choir, directed by David Carew.

“This is great entertainment for the kids that also exposes them to the arts,” said Dogwood Fine Arts Festival Chair Jim Benedix. “And we are very glad to have SMC involved.”

Klassics for Kids is a program put on every year by the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival for Dowagiac students. This year is different, as it will feature both instrumental and vocal elements, Benedix said.

“We are trying to reach out to the kids in this new way,” he said. “The idea is that the kids will see these things and think, ‘oh, that’s really cool. Maybe I could do that one day.’”

Benedix said that getting local children involved with the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival is important to festival organizers.

“The arts aren’t often on the top list of our priorities, so whenever we can expose the children to the arts, be it music, culinary, storytelling or anything else, it’s a bit more enriching, I like to think,” he said. “We want to give them a variety of the arts to experience.”

Benedix added that he believes that children are not exposed to the arts often enough and that it is easy for the arts to fall by the wayside both in education and at home when students have to keep up with other activities. Because of this, he and other Dogwood officials want to provide events tailored toward children, so that the festival can bridge the gaps in arts education that children might be missing elsewhere.

“The arts are often an easy cut, so we hope we are able to enhance what the students are getting from the classroom,” Benedix said.

The Dogwood Fine Arts Festival board members are confident that they have organized a good Klassics for Kids event this year and hope that the students will enjoy it, Benedix said.

“We really do think this is a great event that the kids get something out of,” he said.

For more information, visit dogwoodfinearts.org.

A full list of Dogwood Fine Arts Festival events:

May 3: Starfish Circus, 7:30 p.m., Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, 57028 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac.

May 4: Starfish Circus, 7:30 p.m., Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, 57028 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac.

May 10: Fischoff Soiree, 7:30 p.m., Dowagiac Train Depot, 200 Depot Dr. Dowagiac.

May 10: Klassics for Kids, 1 p.m., Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, 57028 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac.

May 11: Fischoff Soiree, 7:30 p.m., Dowagiac History Museum, 201 E. Division St., Dowagiac.

May 12: Sweet Tea Trio, 7:30 p.m., Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, 57028 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac.

May 15: Storytelling Master Class: 7 to 9 p.m., COA Front Street Crossing, 227 Front St., Dowagiac.

May 16: Storytelling with Ed Stivender, 7:30 p.m., Southwestern Michigan College, 58900 Cherry Grove Road, Dowagiac.

May 17: Youth Fine Arts Night, 6 p.m., Dowagiac Union High School, 701 W. Prairie Ronde St., Dowagiac.

May 18: Karen Dionne, 7 p.m., Southwestern Michigan College, 58900 Cherry Grove Road, Dowagiac.

May 19: Harp Twins, 7:30 p.m., Southwestern Michigan College, 58900 Cherry Grove Road, Dowagiac.