Visual Arts

An experiential journey of traditional design & fine arts principles

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Developing the Creative Potential in Each Student

The Academy’s Fine and Performing Arts program develops the creative potential in each student, a process which is both intellectual and experiential. A rich, varied experience in the arts is essential to educating the whole child, and the Fine Arts Department offers courses in the visual arts, music, dance, and theater.

The Visual Arts program is designed as a sequential, experiential journey of traditional design elements and fine arts principles such as line, shape, matter, color, proportion, form and function, texture, and spatial relationships. Students are encouraged to experiment as they increasingly learn technique in drawing, painting, printmaking, fiber arts, sculpture and ceramics at their own pace. In the Lower School, children develop skills as designers, narrators, and technicians while they experience visual art through conceptual discussions, investigations of materials, skill demonstrations, and the creation of individual visual statements.

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Early Childhood (PK-K)

The Art program focuses on developing fine motor skills along with self-expression. Children are encouraged to experiment with and explore color, texture, and form. Throughout the Early Childhood program, children begin to understand color, shape, size, line, proportion, and pattern. They develop hand/eye coordination and observation skills. Creativity and craftsmanship are complementary components of the program. A main focus is developing fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, and learning to express creatively through fantasy and imaginary scenes.
Grade 1

Students learn to identify images and symbols in art, nature, and the environment. They also develop increasingly sophisticated observational skills that allow them to express ideas, feelings, and values in color, form, and spatial relationships. Students begin to work with life drawing and basic figure and portrait techniques, and experiment with depth in two-dimensional works. Grade 1 students learn to analyze, compare, and judge the artworks of others as well as their own and gain an appreciation of their own aesthetic values as well as those of people of different cultures.
Grade 2

Grade 2 students begin to refine and manage a rudimentary art vocabulary for critical analysis and judgment. They begin to manipulate and build with a variety of media as well as improve eye/hand coordination with pencil, brush, and various art tools.
Grade 3

Students explore a variety of materials, mediums, and techniques associated with traditional drawing and painting. They begin to focus on composition and design and practice observational skills such as visual recall, blocking-in, contour drawing, texture, and gestural drawing.
Grade 4

Grade 4 students demonstrate aesthetic perception by identifying color, texture, shape, size, line, proportion, scale, symmetry, texture, and pattern. The subject matter may include still life, landscapes, architecture, aspects of figurative studies, and portraits. Students are also introduced to famous artists, such as Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Van Gogh.
Grade 5

By the end of Grade 5, students can identify the styles of celebrated artists. They have studied stained glass windows of gothic cathedrals, cave paintings, and stylized figures, such as those of William Johnson. They will have used the following materials for drawing: graphite pencils, pastels, pen and ink, watercolors, tempera, acrylics, and craft clay.
Grade 6

Art electives are offered in the following categories for students in Grade 6: digital arts, performing arts, and visual arts.

Digital and visual art studio classes are designed for individual creativity on project-based work; and appreciation classes cover the history and significance of key genres, artists, or movements within the chosen discipline.

DIGITAL ARTS

Robotics - Fall Trimester
New offering for the 2018-2019 school year. Students in Robotics will learn how to build and program a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot using various Lego parts, motors, and sensors. Students will enhance their problem solving skills as they work to get their robot to perform certain tasks and find solutions to real world problems. Students interested in the robotics club should take this course.

Digital Game Design - Winter Trimester
Students in Digital Game Design will design, create, play, and evaluate various games. Students in the course will construct a board game using fabrication tools, program an original digital game, and build their own video game controller using a Makey Makey.

Digital Arts - Spring Trimester
Students in Digital Art will use various digital tools to create and edit photos, audio, and videos to express their creativity. Tools students may use throughout the course include digital cameras and camcorders, Pixlr, Camtasia and other resources.

VISUAL ARTS

Beginning - Explorations in Art
Students will work to build their skills and techniques by examining historical content and how contemporary artists use the past to build the work of today. Using a variety of tools, this course explores a range of mediums from drawing and painting to digital painting, 3-D design and street art or urban contemporary art. Students will gain an understanding of the tools they are using as well as an introduction to multiple mediums and how they can work in tandem with one another.
Grades 7-8

Art electives are offered in the following categories for students in Grades 7 and 8: digital arts, performing arts, visual arts, and music. Students select these courses in the spring by rank ordering their choices in an electronic form, sent through email. All students will be placed in three courses, one each trimester. Performing arts classes prepare for an ensemble performance either large or small during the term.

Digital and visual art studio classes are designed for individual creativity on project-based work; and appreciation classes cover the history and significance of key genres, artists, or movements within the chosen discipline.

DIGITAL ARTS

Computer Programming
Students in Computer Programming will use Alice 3, a 3-D programming language, to manipulate objects to create animated games and stories. By the end of the course, students will have created several story scene animations and interactive games.

Robotics - Winter Trimester
Students in Robotics will learn how to build and program a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot using various Lego parts, motors, and sensors. Students will enhance their problem solving skills as they work to get their robot to perform certain tasks and find solutions to real world problems. Students interested in the robotics club should take this course.

Arts & Bots
Students in Arts & Bots will combine craft materials and a Hummingbird Robotics kit to create a unique robot that they will animate by programming sensors, motors, servos, and LEDs. Students will also use various digital tools to help them brainstorm and design components of their robot.

Creators and Curators of Your Digital Self
Students in this course will learn the historical background of various social media, create authentic content that would be appropriate for online publishing, and curate online content to encourage lifelong learning. Students will create videos, infographics, memes, blog posts, and other digital work, as well as create a collection of digital resources based on their own interests and passions.

VISUAL ARTS

Intermediate - Explorations in Art
Based in skill and technique building with various tools. Referencing historical content and how contemporary art makers use the past to build the work of today. This course explores a range of mediums from drawing and painting to digital painting, 3-D design and street art or urban contemporary art. Students will gain an understanding of the tools they are using as well as an introduction to multiple mediums and how they can work in tandem with one another.

Making Work with Non-Traditional Materials
This course focuses on collecting objects to make sculptures/3-D design pieces that come from primitive and contemporary work. Examining the sculptural form, problem solving, and architectural forms of the following architects influences student creation: Antonio Gaudi, Frank Gehry, Louise Nevelson, Jean Dubuffet, Joseph Beuys, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Urban Contemporary and Found Object Art
The course examines the perspective and work of the following outsider artists or non–mainstream artists who are self taught and therefore not formally trained: Thornton Dial, Lonny Holly, Bill Traylor, and Madge Gill. Paint and objects found in the environment are assembled in this type of art to express the artist’s message.

Ceramics: Hand Building
Projects in this class include: research and create an African mask employing soft and hard slab construction techniques; create an aquatic animal of your choice by utilizing pinching techniques; craft a “replica” of an ancient Grecian vessel using the coil method and sgraffito decorating; and combine all introduced techniques and create a “personal” art piece as a final project.

Ceramics: Wheel Throwing
Students will concentrate their studio work on the wheel. Units include: an introduction of basic throwing techniques (center, enter, open, raise, and form); rudimentary thrown vessels will be created focusing on proportion and wall thickness; a variety of glazing applications will be introduced (dip, pour, trail, brush, stain, and spray); and composite pieces will be presented toward the end of the trimester (lids, handles, and spouts). Priority registration is given to students in Grade 8.
Grade 9

Two sequences, one in drawing and painting and the other in ceramics, are available to Grade 9 students. Students may choose a three-trimester sequence in either, or they may elect trimester courses in both disciplines. In addition, courses in basic, advanced, and specialized photography are offered as full-year sequences. In Drawing/Painting, students are introduced to the traditions, theoretical concepts, and basic technical skills of drawing that will help to realize the creative and expressive potential in each unique individual. The course assumes no prior knowledge or experience of drawing and is entirely experiential in its methodology. As painting is seen as an extension of the drawing process, an exploration of color follows and invites students to experiment with both watercolor and tempera paint mediums.

Introductory Ceramics is a hands-on course where students learn a variety of glazing techniques and ceramic hand building techniques, including pinch, coil, and slabs. Throwing on the wheel is introduced on a limited basis in this course.
Grade 10

Grade 10 students may elect Ceramics II: Fundamentals or Ceramics III: Hand Building. Both courses expand the basic knowledge and skills in hand building and wheel-thrown ceramics. Students learn how a kiln is stacked and fired. The course also offers further development in the elements and principles of design, knowledge of artists, and art heritage. In Hand Building, various tools include the clay extruder, plaster molds, heat guns, and sand blaster. Slip/glaze applications include dip, pour, trail, and spray. Glaze firing will include high-fire gas reduction, low-fire electric oxidation, and Raku.

In Grade 10 Drawing/Painting, students move to life drawing, self-portraits, and limited figure work. The painting aspect of the course explores the artistic style of abstract expressionism, which is characterized by emotional intensity, spontaneity, and unique use of color and texture. Students work with water color, acrylics, oils/mixed medium on canvas, and/or paper to complete several finished works.
Grade 11

Ceramics students keep a detailed log of ideas and thoughts about possible designs, glaze combinations, and techniques. In the advanced courses, students are expected to create works of art based on their own written and drawn descriptions of the natural or human environment. They develop the needed skills to experiment with function and non-functional formats on the potter’s wheel. More emphasis is placed on the form and function of the finished work. Students will create composite pieces such as tea pots. They will also be asked to throw vessels on the wheel and then alter them off the wheel.

Drawing/Painting: Classical explores the range of materials and techniques associated with traditional figurative drawing and painting. It examines the influences and lineage traced back to the classical traditions of the High Renaissance, starting with exemplary works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Durer, followed by those of Rembrandt, Ingres, Manet, Degas and Sargent. The course begins with analytical drawing exercises that will develop an understanding, skill set, and "eye" necessary for proficient, accurate, and exacting draughtmanship. Mediums of charcoal, graphite pencil, chalk, oil pastels, India ink, watercolor, tempera, acrylics, and oils are all used extensively.
Grade 12

Building on the skills they acquired in Grade 11 ceramics, advanced ceramic students develop an understanding of how clay’s function has changed throughout the history of man and why these changes have taken place. This course encourages the discovery and development of personal imagery and the integration of these images with the student’s clay work. The course will nurture the development of a coherent body of work based on sophisticated techniques and a maturing sense of aesthetic direction.