Visual Arts

We ask students to see themselves as artists and use their experiences and imagination to cultivate their personal and collective voices.

The Visual Arts Department at North Shore Country Day is composed of a group of artist-teachers who support the development of the whole child as a visual, global citizen by focusing on big ideas and inspiring a spirit of service. Each division supports student-artists’ growth by using techniques and tools from contemporary practices, design thinking, global perspectives and social justice initiatives.

Our curriculum creates opportunities for student-artists to confidently envision, engage and persist in their creative practices. As artist-teachers, we strive to provide project objectives that invite a diversity of student voices and ask learners to creatively ideate, revise and reflect on their successes and failures. Students engage in constructive critique to practice giving and receiving feedback as part of one’s artistic practice. Outside of our classrooms, we display student work in all divisional spaces in addition to carefully curated professional exhibitions in our John Almquist Gallery.

The John Almquist Art Gallery

Named after beloved art teacher John Almquist, the gallery is features numerous exhibits throughout the year showcasing student, faculty alumni and invited guests artists.

Our Visual Arts Curriculum

Lower School

The lower school visual arts program focuses on developing students’ creative confidence, critical thinking and global awareness. Process over product is emphasized throughout the curriculum as students explore drawing, painting, printmaking, fibers, digital tools, clay and sculpture to express their ideas and emotions. Discussion and interpretation of diverse art historical images builds students’ visual literacy. The arts curriculum is frequently integrated with classroom topics to deepen student engagement with core curriculum. Throughout the year, students collaborate on projects that address driving questions around social justice and community engagement.

Middle School

Students in middle school visual art explore big ideas, metaphor, and identity while learning to visually communicate their Ideas about themselves and the world. They will think about, explore, create and interpret Art as individuals and as members of a global community. The goal of our classes is that students become familiar with Art as a language to communicate their unique goals, understandings, questions and feelings in whatever paths they take over the course of their lives. Students will experiment, individually and collaboratively, with paint, ideas, issues, words, drawing, collage, sculpture, memory and digital media. Just as importantly, students will dive into the extraordinary diversity of global visual culture, gaining new familiarity with art from ancient to today. They will gain an understanding of the ways knowledge in Art furthers learning in other disciplines, such as math, science, history, current events and writing. Students will experience creativity as a process and learn the fundamentals of observation, critical assessment, self-reflection, drawing, sculpture, painting and proportion. Middle school art students will discover for themselves how to use color, shape, composition and materials as tools to communicate insights that emerge out of their personal experience and interests.

Bringing together the performing and visual arts is ArtLab, a year-long course where students work together and share ideas about contemporary issues while exploring a variety of art-making disciplines, approaches, materials and technologies. Each year, a contemporary social theme is selected and students are asked to investigate and communicate their insights about the theme through a diversity of creative pathways. Through sculpture, painting, poetry, digital media, self-reflection, research and discussion, students learn about historic and personal discovery, global events, installation art and the evolution of cultures around the globe. Social engagement, design thinking and individual exploration in art are at the core of the class, as are asking big questions, taking risks, changing one’s mind, engaging in metaphor, developing empathy and having fun. In the spring, Art Lab culminates in the creation of a collaborative, interdisciplinary art installation exhibited before the entire NSCD community.

Upper School

The upper school visual art program promotes open-mindedness, global thought and personal creative actions. Student-artists experience art through many lenses: hands-on practice, historical inquiry, group critique, museum trips and visiting artist connections. We value the process of creating art and developing technical skills in the upper school curriculum, rather than the visual product.

Studio experiences include the disciplines and media of ceramics, drawing, new media, painting, darkroom and digital photography, printmaking and sculpture. Student-artists have access to a darkroom, ceramics lab, 2-D and 3-D studios, and digital media equipment. Both introductory and advanced level courses are offered. Experienced student-artists and individuals preparing for visual studies at the college level may design an independent study or pursue Advanced Placement Studio Art. Collectively, the visual art courses provide a framework for students to learn and grow, to be inspired to observe, synthesize, generate and appreciate art.