CSS

Fine Arts Curriculum

I. Philosophy

The Fine Arts are perhaps one of the most experiential subjects that the school offers. Our classes are probably 10% lecture and 90% participation. This department actively spans K through 12.

The Fine Art Department believes arts experiences in students’ lives cannot be evaluated simply for their useful application, but are far more fundamentally important to an individual’s development and life. An education without the fine arts is an impoverished education. We consider our task to be to educate the whole child to form whole adults. The Fine Art Department notes with satisfaction, and takes some credit for, the confidence and general self-assurance typical of CSS graduates. We feel that we ask a lot of our students, and that the Fine Arts experience reinforces the culture of CSS as a place where students are expected to take risks. We are demanding yet supportive, and we believe we have struck a successful balance between these two values. It is important to note that the entire faculty in the Fine Art Department are working professionals in their fields.

There are many students at CSS who would not flourish if they did not have access to personal creative expression, whose greatest strengths are visual, expressive, or musical (or all three). There are even more students at CSS who discover that they have strengths in these areas that they never considered possible before having a successful fine arts experience. The Fine Arts program strives to stimulate, challenge, and support three types of students: the naturally talented or gifted student, who is poised to take his or her talent to advanced levels; the student who didn’t know he or she had talent, and is delighted and surprised at his or her newfound ability; the student whose best talents lie outside the arts but who is interested in appreciating the aesthetics of the fine arts.

Much of what we plan and offer is limited and determined by The Schedule, which can change or be changed on short notice. Members of the Art Dept are often called upon to adapt to swift changes in their assignments, class schedules, enrollment, location, budget, and other variables. The Fine Art Department prides itself on supporting and, when appropriate, integrating with the academics, curricula, and values of the overall CSS community.

Some generalities:

  1. There is usually at least one Fine Arts ECS offered every year.
  2. Upper School students must take four Fines Arts classes (2 CU) to graduate.
  3. Middle School students take at least one 45-minute period of Vocal or Instrumental Music, Art, Drama, or Photography every day.
  4. In Children's School and in Middle School, art classes’ content is often tied to subjects students are studying in other disciplines.

II. Performance Goals and Objectives

The goals and performance objectives for the Fine Arts Department are as follows:

  1. To introduce the student to the range and depth of artistic tradition and practice within a specific field of the Fine Arts
  2. To introduce the student to the history of a particular discipline within the Fine Arts, and to place the art discipline into its historical context
  3. To foster an understanding of the particular discipline through practicing it
  4. To develop specific skills necessary for a particular field or discipline
  5. To introduce vocabulary and concepts appropriate to a particular discipline within the Fine Arts
  6. To introduce critical thinking about and appreciation for conventions and traditions of

specific disciplines within the Fine Arts

  1. To apply skills and techniques learned in class to individual works of self-expression
  2. To apply skills and techniques learned in class to group works of expression
  3. To learn to analyze and evaluate artworks or performances, group or individual, using the vocabulary and concepts studied
  4. To teach the student the correct role of a member of an art audience
  5. To be supportive yet demanding of a high level of quality in the student’s work.
  6. To illustrate and explain what high quality means within a given discipline of the arts

III. Instructional Strategies

The instructional strategies employed by all grades to accomplish these goals are as follows:

  1. Traditional Strategies
    1. Lecture
    2. Visual, musical, or physical demonstration
    3. Written evaluations of artworks or performances
    4. Written or verbal self-assessments of individuals’ artworks
    5. Student artworks displayed in community
  2. Experience-based Strategies
    1. Direct student practice in the area of study
    2. Group discussion of artworks or performance
    3. Field trips
    4. Students perform in community
    5. Visiting artists

IV. Assessment Techniques

To assure that our department and students are meeting these goals, the following assessment techniques are applied:

  1. Instructor observation
  2. Instructor evaluation
  3. Student self-evaluation
  4. Class response
  5. Group projects or performances
  6. Individual projects or performances
  7. Public performance
  8. Tests and written papers

Upper School Fine Arts Courses

Elective courses that have been offered over the past few years:

Theater
Acting and Directing
Advanced Acting
Beginning Theater
Technical Theater
The Playwright’s Process

Photo
Beginning Photography
Advanced Photography
Graphic Design
Yearbook

Art
Advanced Art
Art Foundations
Drawing I and II
Figure Drawing
Glass: Neion and Pate de Verre
Glass: Torchworking and Slumping
Metal Sculpture
Mixed Media
Painting I and II
Portraiture
Portfolio Studio Art
Pottery
Printmaking
Sculpture
Textiles
Visual Literacy and Communication
Watercolor
Waterbased Paining

Music
Electives
Music Appreciation
Band
Choir