Visual Arts

You do not need to know the answers in advance. You can ask questions and try different solutions. The teacher can clarify uncertainties, simplify complexities and inspire your creativity. Our location in the Museum District also enables us to seek out art professionals for their expert advice.

Each year there will be new discoveries and new challenges reinforcing foundational skills and principles of design. These paper triangles were cut from paper produced by the 8th grade Paper Art class. Recycled paper was shredded, turned to pulp, dried and is enjoying new life in this visually stunning repeating pattern.

Early Childhood and Lower School art expose you to a variety of media and artists. As you move through Middle School,  you can investigate your preferences. 7th and 8th grade fine art electives like Scientific Illustration, Expressive Sculpture, Degas’ Mixed Media, Knitting or Yearbook allow you to experiment or to focus on a passion.

Black vs white. Thick vs thin. Solid vs. shaded. Big vs. small. Stillness vs. motion. Opposites do attract and sometimes the art room is the safest place to try out extremes. Where else can we juxtapose opposites to such effect?

Art brings plain hallways to life with vibrant color, but the process is often a mess. Lower School Art teacher, Terry Flores' art smock tells the story. Ms. Flores wants you to feel free to experiment with color. Her art room colors students happy.

How do you want to get your point across in your work? Art makes statements through color, context clues, facial expressions and more. This self portrait was inspired by artist, Suzanne Valadon, and captures how students brainstormed different design elements to convey a particular emotion for their self portraits.

True independence. Just you and your exacto knife (or pencil). Tune others out and focus. When students learn how to see like an artist, they can create like one. Seeing different types of space, positive and negative, is an important visual component in art. This cut paper project creates contrast and symmetry in its design.

Art crosses boundaries and heals division. Collaboration can combine individual works into a meaningful whole. Fourth, fifth and seventh grades created one hundred individual feathers that made up a pair of angel wings. This life size public art display for the community to enjoy crossed many grades, creating a surprising example of school unity.

You can relax in the art room. There are no grades to worry about, just the freedom to create. Art teacher, Mrs. Herrick, did not worry when she had to purchase spools and spools of wire for a student in her class with a vision that required over 4 miles of wire to sculpt.

The past informs the present. Art in the context of history and culture teaches us about civilization. Starting in Early Childhood students are exposed to great art and artists in history. Here, Kindergarteners learn about Medieval gilding by painting crepe paper on with glue.

We’ve got this. Give us the tools and instructions and let us work. Fourth grade learns from Glassell School of Art faculty the principles of installing an exhibit. Then, armed with middle school art, they measure, hammer, employ the level and make decisions about how the viewer will experience the art.

Not only in school, but be an artist for a lifetime. You don’t have to sell paintings to be an artist. You have to embody a love of art in all that you do: observing carefully, taking risks, solving problems creatively and abandoning perfection in favor of savoring the process.