The Art & Design program will help you develop your visual literacy (your understanding and appreciation of artistic concepts such as the principles of design), creative problem solving, design-thinking (a focus on the process of making), and technical skills (craftsmanship). You’ll develop your knowledge, understanding, and skills in various materials and techniques through class projects, exercises, and outside assignments. You’ll collaborate, share and discuss your work in critiques, and prepare your work for exhibition. You’ll be encouraged to build a portfolio of your work. These are all active, hands-on courses!
In our art classes, you’ll develop your Studio Habits of Mind, which are valuable skills in today’s competitive job market. You’ll develop your craft, becoming more skillful in using different tools, materials, and artistic processes. You’ll learn the proper maintenance for tools, materials, and your workspace. You’ll begin to see and embrace problems as opportunities, develop your focus, and persist and persevere at tasks. You’ll envision and imagine, thinking creatively, developing your ability to come up with new ideas. You’ll learn to plan well. You’ll express yourself, making art that conveys ideas, feelings, or personal meanings. You’ll observe, looking closely and carefully at things. You’ll become more and more sensitive to the natural environment as you work from observation, memory, and imagination. You’ll reflect on what you and your fellow artists have done. You’ll learn how to look at and talk about art. You’ll stretch and explore, reaching beyond what you thought you could do. You’ll learn to embrace opportunities, discover through play, and learn from your mistakes. You’ll work and interact with one another in the community that is the art class, and you’ll have a chance to share your work with your wider communities of school and family. Art classes can serve as a balance to your academic classes. Art-making is an enriching experience that can help to develop a well-rounded person (Studio Habits of Mind comes out of the framework of Studio Thinking designed by practitioners at Project Zero at Harvard’s School of Education.).