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Student Art Gallery

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We believe that a well-rounded individual should be equally capable in the academic, artistic and practical realms. Art classes give students opportunities for individual expresion while teaching them discipline. The practical arts curriculum balances the academic program and teaches students the basic techniques of woodworking, weaving, basketry, and bookbinding. In all classes students study the characteristics of the materials they use, and they learn how to relate the asthetics of design to the practical function of the objects they create. Our students' art is regularly exhibited at the school as well as in shows and exhibitions throughout the city.

History Through Art Seminar—9th Grade: This survey course focuses on the essential characteristics of the ancient cultures as reflected in their art. The cultures, which are studied in detail, include: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Italian Renaissance. This course is also about the evolution of human consciousness. In this course, students experience how the ideals and values of the civilization are expressed through that culture's art. Students look closely at architecture, sculpture and painting from these civilizations. Slides, posters and reproductions are shown to the students and are discussed in class. Some of the main themes may include the relationship between art and religion and the evolution of the artistic rendering of the human being. The class takes several trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to study examples in greater detail. Students are called upon to describe what they see both verbally and in written form. Students are required to write up the material presented in class in the form of short essays for their main lesson books. Other important components of the main lesson books are the drawings, diagrams, and floor plans of works studied in class.

Black and White Drawing—9th Grade: This course emphasizes the study of form through the observation of light and shadow. Subject matter is varied and includes both preliminary still-life studies and a longer major project. Students will use charcoal and black pastel to create smooth transitions as well as distinct contrasts of planes. Students are encouraged to draw with as wide a range of tone as possible, from deep blacks and crisp whites to the subtle use of intermediate grays. At this level, students will work from life and from photographs/reproductions and will complete a long-term project. By the end of the course students will produce well-rendered, formal and striking black and white drawings in charcoal and black pastel.

Introduction to Sculpture--9th Grade: In this course students are introduced to a process of working designed to help them form their own judgment about their sculpture work. The process consists of working out of the whole form to the details. The course begins with a required project, usually a mask or a bust. The second project allows for more variety. Students are encouraged to observe the progress of their own work and develop their own forms.

Basketry—9th Grade: In this course students learn one of the oldest crafts, basketry. Students weave a small standard basket and are also given a wide range of colored reeds and techniques to create additional baskets with various functions.

Perspective Drawing—10th Grade: The students in this course will begin by making a series of perspective drawings illustrating basic principles and methods of construction. The work is designed to show the connection between perspective and geometry. Grades are derived from individual works focusing on the quality and comprehension reflected.

Watercolor Painting—10th Grade: This course involves the interpretation of a masterwork from art history, namely from movements such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, or Fauvism. The purpose of this study is to draw students into the world and private vision of a great artist where he or she will encounter, through that master's hand, the experience of color. This revolution of color and its enormous impact on the artists of nineteenth century France gave birth to some of the most exquisite and spontaneous paintings in the whole of art history.

Using dry sheets of paper, students learn to build up an image beginning with light coats of color and arriving at a finished picture by applying layers of paint. By the end of the course, students have gained self-confidence in their abilities to control the difficult watercolor medium and have experienced a slice of art history with their interpretations of a great masterwork.

Weaving—10th Grade: In this course students learn the ancient craft of weaving. Students are free to choose between different colored yarn and designs for their project. The demanding process of setting up the loom and weaving the final piece- a scarf-is very rewarding. Patience, design, and skilful workmanship is very important in this class.

Intermediate Sculpture—10th Grade: This course allows for more advanced work than the clay modeling class offered in the ninth grade. Work begins with a required project where students are asked to use a famous sculpture as an inspiration for their work. This course is meant to build upon the knowledge of the ancient world that sophomores acquire in the Ancient History Seminar. Students take frequent trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to get a first-hand view of Iranian and Mesopotamian sculptures.

Watercolor and Mixed Media Painting—11th Grade: This course seeks to develop each individual's skill with the medium of watercolor, both in terms of color and composition. Students learn to mix paint with the intention of achieving subtle nuances of tone as well as vivid contrasts. Pastel is also available to students who wish to incorporate it into their long-term projects, thus creating a painting with mixed media. Students explore form and volume through diversified subject matter.

Bookbinding—11th Grade: The fine craft of bookbinding demands accuracy, spatial thinking, and patience. In this class the students learn to make a standard blank book. Based on their first project they are free to create projects of their own choosing and design with a wide variety of decorative paper. Form, function, creativity, and precision are important in this class.

Advanced Course in Sculpture—11th Grade: This course is designed to give students the opportunity to do one major project in wood or stone. Students are given a wide range of choices with respect to material, shape and size. Each student is challenged to imagine the sleeping forms inherent in the piece of material he or she chooses. The students try to realize their own mental pictures by cutting away and shaping their work. Students in this course work in the woodshop with chisels, various rasps, and sandpaper. The only machine used is an electric drill with a special attachment for polishing. This course builds on the skills of gouging. In this course the teacher acts as a consultant and assistant in helping students to realize their ideas. Besides realizing their ideas in a three dimensional form, the students in this class also work to reveal the beauty of the material they have chosen.

Architecture—12th Grade: Recently we have come to see our built environment very variously. We have enherited a tradition of analysis in the West that has treated building styles like plants or animal species, evolving along axes of constructional technique-the Greek stone temple, the Roman concrete vault, the Gothic cut-stone cathedral, the modern concrete slab building. Inceasingly, however, we have come to understand the nature of space-both external, in terms of how a building fits in its landscape and its cityscape, and internal in terms of how it encloses the social functions that brought it into being. We have also come to understand that the way in which we map our architecture reflects how we grasp our world and our action on it. It is the objective of this course to use architecture before and after the Industrial Revolution; in the West and in elsewhere to explore how we map and construct the world around us. Local trips and hands-on projects may be included as part of this course.

From Realism to Surrealism: A Brief Survey of Modern European Art, 1840-1930—12th Grade: In this short and intensive main lesson block, senior trace the beginnings of the modern artist's search for new freedoms of expression, beginning with Courbet and the Realist Rebellion and ending with Dali and the Surrealists. Students empathize with the artist's struggle to find his own unique voice. It is a struggle students can relate to on a very personal level. The many dynamic and often larger-than-life characters they encounter along the way quickly capture their imaginations and inspire their interest in art. Certain topics in architecture are also touched upon, for example the Bauhaus movement in Germany and the works of Frank Lloyd Wright in America.

From Realism to Surrealism: A Complementary Afternoon Art Block—12th Grade: This afternoon art block offered to seniors directly relates to their Main Lesson, "From Realism to Surrealism: A Brief Survey of Modern European Art, 1840-1930." Students are asked to create a painting working from subject matter of their choice, or from a specific studio assignment, in these exercises they fully explore the style of one of the great modern movements, for example: Pointallism, Fauvism, Post-Impressionism, Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, or Surrealism. Industrious students are encouraged to invent imagry that combines two styles, such as Futurism or Cubusm, as in Duchamp's famous Nude Descending the Staircase.

Crafts—12th Grade: In this course students will complete work in the practical arts. The medium by which this is completed changes from year to year. Design, creativity and focus on detail are important qualities for achievement in the course.

Graphic Art and Illustration Elective Class—9th and 10th Grade: The development of an "idea" and the execution of a project with care and attention to detail is what are emphasized in this course. This art elective has students involved with projects such as book jackets, magazine of compact disc design and illustration, monogram, logo design, and poster design. Students work in a variety of media such as pen and ink, scratchboard, lead and colored pencils, watercolor, collage, and computer graphics techniques. These kinds of exercises help broaden the young designer's intelligence and aid in stimulating his/her imagination. At the end of the course, students will have produced interesting, bold, and often witty designs that strengthen their overall artistic confidence and skill. During the spring semester, students in this course learn the basics about mono printing. Of crucial importance is the design of the print worked out by the student. The student usually makes several drawings in pencil or ink to work out the contrast between the positive and negative surfaces, which form the image to be printed. The design is then drawn on linoleum and the negative surfaces are gouged out of it. The final step is to make a series of prints on different types of paper using colored inks. In the past, part of the art elective course for ninth and tenth grade students has focused on figure drawing. The students pose for each other and use compressed charcoal or lead pencils as their drawing tools. The purpose of the class is to strengthen their powers of observation and to develop each student's skill when rendering the human form in an interior space.

Silkscreen Printmaking Elective—9th and 10th Grade: In the first half of this course, students will be introduced to the basic photographic principals such as understanding the camera, the importance of lighting, and composition. After taking a series of black and white photographs students will then use the darkroom to develop their own images.During the second half of the course students will either transfer images generated during the photography portion of the class or create new images and transfer these to a silkscreen. Students may complete final printing of these images onto either paper or fabric.

Handbag and T-Shirt Design Elective—9th and 10th Grade: Students will explore the fine craft of patternmaking. In the first half of this course, students will design and construct a three dimensional object to be used as a functional carrying bag. Students will take their inspiration from backpacks, baskets and traditional handbags. Students will draw an image and then choose the material best suited to create their design. In the second part of this course, students use a white T-shirt as a blank canvas to design an image to paint or draw onto the T-shirt using textile paint. With a selection of paints the students can use different tools to create the desired results. Design and craftsmanship are important aspects in this course.

Oil Painting Elective—12th Grade: Paint is no longer transparent or translucent; it is opaque and rather dense, which requires an entirely different kind of rendering on the part of the student in order to create a satisfactory picture. Students begin their projects by applying fairly thin coats of oil paint to establish composition and perspective, gradually building up to a more substantial, tactile surface where the paint becomes much thicker. The senior art student eventually confronts himself with a demanding self-portrait which he/she completes by the end of the course. Apart from its artistic rewards, students who paint with oils learn control, patience, and skill.

Introduction to Film and Digital Filmaking—12th Grade: The best filmakers have had an intimate knowledge of all aspects of creating a film. In this class students study a few great films and filmakers and then apply their knowledge to the production of their own films. Using digital cameras and a digital editing system, students will learn the entire process of making a film (dramatic, documentary, or animation) from writing a story concept to editing and post-production. The final project will be a student film which will be screened during the Steiner Film Festival.

Student Art Gallery

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Music 

Music forms an important part of the social fabric of our school. Music classes include music history, music theory, ear-training, and sight-singing. These classes are enriched by in-school concerts and by trips to Lincoln Center. All students join the High School Chorus, which prepares major concerts, operettas and musicals, and may engage in extracurricular music groups, or the Independent School Orchestra.

Chorus—9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grade: Participation in Chorus is required for all four years of high school. Students sing a wide variety of music from different cultures and perform at school assemblies and concerts. Students learn to express diversity through music as well as how to read music and use their voices in a healthy manner. Students are graded according to their participation in this process.

Orchestra Elective —9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grade: The orchestra plays music from the standard symphonic repertoire of the Baroque through Modern eras. The orchestra performs at school assemblies, school concerts, and various community functions. Some pieces, which have been performed in recent years, have included Bizet's Carmen Suite, the overture of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The orchestra meets weekly.

Jazz Band Elective—9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grade: The Jazz Band plays music from standard jazz charts as well as big band and swing arrangements. Students are taught basic jazz theory and improvisational skills and are encouraged to perform solo at each concert. The Jazz Band is frequently featured at school benefit functions and also performs at school assemblies and the annual Spring Concert. The jazz band meets weekly.

West African Drumming Ensemble: Beginner Level—9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grade: The ensemble provides students without prior musical training the opportunity to participate in Instrumental Music. Students develop their rhythmic sense through the art of playing percussion instruments. The course also includes call and response singing to basic West African dance melodies. The drumming ensemble performs at school assemblies and concerts. The beginner course is designed to bring the basic technique of drumming to the student.

Music Theory Elective—9th, 10th and 11th Grade: The objective of the music theory course is to provide the theoretical skills necessary to compose contrapuntal melodies. The students are taught the rudiments and terminology of music including notation, intervals, scales and keys, chords, metric organization, and rhythmic dictation. The course then progresses to counterpoint, the study of writing one line against another to form a coherent whole. Final grades are based upon a combination of exams and the progression of students' written melodies. At the conclusion of the course, they should be competent in music reading, notation, and basic composition.

History through Music—11th Grade: In History through Music, we study the parallel historical development of human consciousness and music. Students analyze music through the phenomena of melody, harmony, rhythm, and the tone color (timbre) in composition. Students listen to, discuss, sing, and analyze music from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras. Music of the ancient world is also included in our discussion, although only fragments of written music and theoretical practice exist. Students are required to give an oral report on the life of a composer, to present an artistic project consisting of either a performance or a compositional project, and to submit an organized notebook of the course materials.

Music Performance Sound Clips

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Drama

Drama figures prominently into the arts curriculum. In our drama program we teach acting, the history of drama, and the technical aspects of play production. Every senior class presents a major play from the classical or modern repertoire.

History through Drama Seminar—9th Grade: This four week course traces the birth and origin of drama from ancient Greece to the development of Roman, Medieval, Elizabethan and French theatre. Several plays are read in this course, including: Oedipus Rex and A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the central themes students study in this course is how theatre reflects social and political change. Students also examine the historical development of performance spaces and festivals unique to each period. Biographies of artists such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Moliere are also presented. The course includes various writing projects, an independent project, and also requires the production of an illustrated, hand-written notebook.

Classical Drama—10th Grade: This course focuses on speech and drama in relation to dialogue. Greek or Roman plays provide the format. Students in this course are often expected to perform a full evening performance.

Senior Play—12th Grade: The Senior Play is a culmination of the students' experience of the Waldorf curriculum. The class begins the year by reading various plays under the supervision of the instructor, ultimately choosing one to perform. The class is responsible for designing the production and for developing their characters.

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