In addition to the current fine arts, vocal, and instrumental music programs offered as part of the academic day, students may participate in the Eastminster Singers as well as the spring drama production. Eastminster School has been well-represented in the GISA All-Select Band.
Arts
Eastminster’s Visual Art curriculum begins at the Lower School level with a basic introduction to the elements of art: line, shape, form, color, value, space, and texture. Students learn the vocabulary and how to apply these concepts when discussing art and making images. Once these concepts are mastered, students learn and apply the principles of design: balance, unity, emphasis, movement, and rhythm. Upon entrance into the Upper School, students explore further through art history studies and through student critiques.
Eastminster’s art history curriculum covers artistic accomplishments from early human records to present day artists. The focus is primarily on Western artworks, artists, and art movements, but includes regular exposure to African, Asian, and South American art traditions. Eastminster has formed an art history canon of approximately 250 masterpieces and an architecture canon of approximately 100 structures. This canon serves as a guide to ensure that students experience a broad spectrum of classic examples of fine art. The artworks are shared with students through digital slide presentations and accompanying age-appropriate lectures. Students will also examine contemporary notions of conceptual art, installations, environmental art, and performance art. They will debate art ethics issues, including art definitions, art ownership, art reproduction, copyright laws, art sampling, art sales, government funding for the arts, public works, art criticism, and street art/vandalism.
Each year a new curriculum is designed based on the students’ previous studies, cross-curricular opportunities, current events, and traveling exhibits which may inform their education. The annual curriculum is centered on a theme, which is used to organize the massive amount of information available. Some themes selected in years past include Artists A through Z, Art around the World, and Art through the Ages. Field trips are organized and guest artists are invited for visits.
In the art studio, students explore a variety of materials and media, including graphite, crayon, color pencil, pastels, ink, watercolor, tempera, acrylic, clay, glass, collage, paper mache, mosaic, printmaking, photography, fabric art, foil, wire, and mixed media. Students have opportunities to draw and paint preliminary sketches, still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, as well as abstract and non-objective imagery. They learn both additive and subtractive drawing and sculpting techniques. Students work with a variety of cutting and carving tools. They collage, decoupage, and glue with several types of adhesives. They may also assemble wooden or metal forms with simple carpenter’s tools. Students form ceramic tiles, pottery, and figures. They learn basic sewing skills, weave fibers, and embroider tapestries. Students emboss metal foils, mold soft metal structures, and may construct stable and mobile structures. Students also explore photography as well as digital art design.
The curriculum is differentiated within the classroom for students who work at different paces, have unique interests, and have different art ambitions. Free art activities, independent study programs, and extracurricular art opportunities are provided for students who seek them. Students who wish to pursue art as a course of study beyond high school graduation will construct a diverse and in-depth portfolio, which may be submitted for AP studio art credit or along with college applications into college studio art programs. This portfolio will contain an extensive sampling of their studio art explorations as well as a focused series. The series they create will demonstrate a unique style and express a meaningful message, which they personally cultivate. These advanced students will document their creations in a manner befitting a professional artist, organize a solo art exhibit in a public space, and finally publish an official artist’s statement, which expresses their personal aesthetic philosophy.