Visual Arts

By engaging each student in problem solving using a variety of media, the Lower School Arts Program capitalizes on children’s joyous affinity with art materials and activities of every type.

Learning by doing provides the basis for class activities. On-going discussion and reflection reinforce the hands-on, experiential aspect of each project. Through their years in Lower School art, students grow in skill and artistic self-confidence as they encounter ever-more challenging ideas and materials. By acquiring the tools to express thoughts, feelings, and images in a personally satisfying way, and by gaining an awareness of art as a universally important human activity, students learn about art and their own relationship to it.

Upper School art courses offer students opportunities to concentrate in one discipline. Girls work closely with members of the art faculty who encourage inquiry, experimentation, and excellence. Studios are spacious, well equipped, and open to students throughout the day.

In addition to acquiring the various skills and techniques involved in a specific art discipline, the experience of creating art directly relates to development of critical thinking, mental discipline, self-confidence, and the ability to solve problems.

The art curriculum provides developmentally appropriate and challenging training for each student to express herself while nurturing the artistic process so that it becomes incorporated into her daily life.

The art curriculum of Holton-Arms actively engages each student in the process of discovering her creative vision while acquiring technical skills and gaining historical and cultural perspectives. Art courses in the Middle School provide general introductions to studio art, photography and ceramics, and reinforce skills and concepts learned at the primary level.