Arts & Crafts
Integration of the Arts and Academics
Art permeates the curriculum in our Upper School, helping students become confident, creative thinkers with exceptional powers of observation.
When courses provide opportunity for artistic expression, students are challenged to look at the world from a new perspective. Even students who come into the Upper School with little artistic experience find that when the arts and academics are integrated, learning lasts a lifetime.
In Class 11, for example, students read the great medieval epic Parzival and interpret the story through drawing, composition, sculpture, or film. Students analyse and appreciate the masterwork and understand its deeper meaning in their own way.
In Projective Geometry students work with infinity, stretching their mind to understand Pascal’s line and draw it beautifully, accurately, and intelligently—the abstract becomes tangible. Through their academic studies, students are asked to present an idea or concept artistically, a process that gives them new insights and deeper understanding of subjects.
Students also take four years of art and music classes and value the balance that these classes bring to their rigorous academic schedule. Through art classes, students explore new disciplines, develop a strong aesthetic sense, and learn to work with their hands. They may build a forge for metalworking, and sculpt the human hand in clay. Classes are taught by professional musicians, artists, and craftspeople and include such offering as digital photography, film-making, cooper arts, and weaving.
Visual Arts: Depth of Offerings in the Arts
Students value the balance that art classes bring to their rigorous academic schedule. They explore many disciplines, develop a strong aesthetic sense, and learn to work with their hands. These classes give students time to delve into the arts as subjects in their own right.
Students in classes nine, ten and eleven, progress through set art blocks such as copper, black and white drawing, pottery, and weaving. Particular courses engage and challenge students at their stage of development. In basketry, for instance, class nine students bring order and harmony to a pile of wet, chaotic reeds. The process itself requires concentrated effort and artistry, a constructive challenge for students of this age. In classes eleven and twelve, students choose from art electives such as digital photography, bookbinding, oil painting, and videography. These offerings may change to reflect student interests.
Music Programme for All Students
Our Upper School students experience the joy of musical expression and learn about the training, dedication, and discipline inherent in the study of music as an art. The comprehensive program provides classes for all levels, from beginners to students with years of musical training, and a variety of performing ensembles.
The school attracts professional musicians who are dedicated instructors. Classes provide intense and individual focus in a particular area of music. Performing ensembles include Orchestra, Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Drumming, Guitar Ensemble, and Eurythmy Performance Troupe. There are many opportunities for performance, including the annual Winter Concert.
Eurythmy Programme: A Unique Movement Art
With the twentieth century came a revolution in the fine arts. Artists, whose work now defines modernism, experimented with new forms of architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and dance—seeking a deeper understanding of their media and a more vital connection to the human being.
Eurythmy was created during this period when Rudolf Steiner, the philosopher, intellectual, and founder of (Steiner) Waldorf education, was asked if new meaning could be given to the art of dance. Steiner explored the world of speech and music, seeking archetypal forms and movements within the sounds themselves. From this exploration came Eurythmy, a unique movement art that is used in education and enjoyed in performance around the world.
Eurythmy is taught as a block within the college art program. In class nine, students are introduced to various choreographic forms and group formations. Precision and teamwork are emphasized. In class ten eurythmy, students perfect the performance of a poem and a music piece. Expression and gestures are explored, and group and individual work is practiced. In classes eleven and twelve, eurythmy is an elective class; practice deepens in particular elements and formations. Students are encouraged to contribute creativity to the themes such as tone and speech.
Art permeates the curriculum in our Upper School, helping students become confident, creative thinkers with exceptional powers of observation.
When courses provide opportunity for artistic expression, students are challenged to look at the world from a new perspective. Even students who come into the Upper School with little artistic experience find that when the arts and academics are integrated, learning lasts a lifetime.
In Class 11, for example, students read the great medieval epic Parzival and interpret the story through drawing, composition, sculpture, or film. Students analyse and appreciate the masterwork and understand its deeper meaning in their own way.
In Projective Geometry students work with infinity, stretching their mind to understand Pascal’s line and draw it beautifully, accurately, and intelligently—the abstract becomes tangible. Through their academic studies, students are asked to present an idea or concept artistically, a process that gives them new insights and deeper understanding of subjects.
Students also take four years of art and music classes and value the balance that these classes bring to their rigorous academic schedule. Through art classes, students explore new disciplines, develop a strong aesthetic sense, and learn to work with their hands. They may build a forge for metalworking, and sculpt the human hand in clay. Classes are taught by professional musicians, artists, and craftspeople and include such offering as digital photography, film-making, cooper arts, and weaving.
Visual Arts: Depth of Offerings in the Arts
Students value the balance that art classes bring to their rigorous academic schedule. They explore many disciplines, develop a strong aesthetic sense, and learn to work with their hands. These classes give students time to delve into the arts as subjects in their own right.
Students in classes nine, ten and eleven, progress through set art blocks such as copper, black and white drawing, pottery, and weaving. Particular courses engage and challenge students at their stage of development. In basketry, for instance, class nine students bring order and harmony to a pile of wet, chaotic reeds. The process itself requires concentrated effort and artistry, a constructive challenge for students of this age. In classes eleven and twelve, students choose from art electives such as digital photography, bookbinding, oil painting, and videography. These offerings may change to reflect student interests.
Music Programme for All Students
Our Upper School students experience the joy of musical expression and learn about the training, dedication, and discipline inherent in the study of music as an art. The comprehensive program provides classes for all levels, from beginners to students with years of musical training, and a variety of performing ensembles.
The school attracts professional musicians who are dedicated instructors. Classes provide intense and individual focus in a particular area of music. Performing ensembles include Orchestra, Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Drumming, Guitar Ensemble, and Eurythmy Performance Troupe. There are many opportunities for performance, including the annual Winter Concert.
Eurythmy Programme: A Unique Movement Art
With the twentieth century came a revolution in the fine arts. Artists, whose work now defines modernism, experimented with new forms of architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and dance—seeking a deeper understanding of their media and a more vital connection to the human being.
Eurythmy was created during this period when Rudolf Steiner, the philosopher, intellectual, and founder of (Steiner) Waldorf education, was asked if new meaning could be given to the art of dance. Steiner explored the world of speech and music, seeking archetypal forms and movements within the sounds themselves. From this exploration came Eurythmy, a unique movement art that is used in education and enjoyed in performance around the world.
Eurythmy is taught as a block within the college art program. In class nine, students are introduced to various choreographic forms and group formations. Precision and teamwork are emphasized. In class ten eurythmy, students perfect the performance of a poem and a music piece. Expression and gestures are explored, and group and individual work is practiced. In classes eleven and twelve, eurythmy is an elective class; practice deepens in particular elements and formations. Students are encouraged to contribute creativity to the themes such as tone and speech.
