Visual Arts
Visual Arts is a hands-on experience where students are exposed to a variety of media including drawing, printmaking, architecture, sculpting, painting, and ceramics. Students develop their skills in an environment that emphasizes creative expression and an appreciation for the contribution of others. Students are encouraged to experiment and take risks in order to develop their creativity, skills, and imaginations.
Students at all grade levels:
- Are exposed to various styles - representational or realistic, stylized, impressionistic, and abstract.
- Study different historical periods, including the 20th century.
- Work with fine art and traditional crafts.
- Develop the ability to analyze and describe works of art from various historical periods and different styles.
- Learn to appreciate a variety of art works.
Preschool and Lower School
The Visual Arts program in Preschool and Lower School helps students gain a better understanding of themselves and those around them. The students discover how to think critically about what they see. The projects are designed to connect the principle of Visual Arts with other subject areas and extend what they learn in the classroom. Focus is given to the basic elements and principles of art, such as line, shape, color, form, and texture. Students explore art created by artists representing cultures and periods different from their own making them more aware of the beliefs, ideas, and feelings of people of various ethnic origins, religions, and cultures.
Upper School
In Upper School, the Visual Arts includes the study of art history, analysis, and aesthetic discussions. The program is designed to enable the learner to become visually literate and expressive at a level consistent with his/her intellectual, emotional, and physical development. In order to achieve this, students:
- Apply writing, reading, and verbal skills,
- Integrate learning from other subject areas,
- Use math as a tool for understanding space, quantity, and time,
- Explore a discrete body of knowledge about art discipline that entails facts, skills, and concepts, and
- Are exposed to a variety of materials, techniques and skills.
The Annual Arts Celebration is a culmination of the year's work by all students throughout the entire school. The multi-purpose room is transformed into an art gallery - showcasing hundreds of paintings, watercolors, pastels, ink drawings, prints, sculptures, weavings, and more. You can view a sampling of last year's celebration by visiting our online Art Gallery.