Performing and Visual Arts

Performing arts such as creative movement, instrumental music, choir, forensics and theater are essential to the curriculum in every division at the Academy because music and performance can be external expressions of an inner reality.  The performing arts provide an opportunity to develop an appreciation of the aesthetic realm throughout life.

Regularly scheduled events such as Christmas programs and concerts in each division provide all students with the experience of performing for large audiences.  Spring music programs for both middle schools and Upper School highlight the yearly progress made by students.  Recorders Reaching Out, a select group from the Middle School for Girls, performs publicly throughout the year at different venues. All music students play a key role in liturgies.  

Academy students in the Middle School for Girls and the Upper School also participate in public speaking competitions. The Eleventh Hour Theatre Company of the Upper School produces two plays yearly, a drama in the fall and a musical in the spring.  Depending on the play chosen, students from other divisions may participate as well. Kensington Hall's Performance Band schedules a public performance each year in the local community.  Early Childhood, Primary, and Lower School students learn how to perform in front of an audience, gaining confidence and presentation skills.

Visual arts include art/design, clay and photography. Students experience the thinking, making, skill-developing aspects of the arts as well as their expressive qualities, seen in the context of individual life, and in the life of cultures, past and present.  The emphasis of our art program is on the process of creation; beautiful examples are frequently on display in the Guinn Art Gallery at the Academy.