Arts

Visual Art instruction is taught utilizing methods of experience, observation, and evaluation by children. The curriculum is based on artistic perception, creative expression, historical/cultural context, and aesthetic valuing. Our Elementary School art program has been likened over the years to “a college foundational art program in kindergarten” because of the focus on color, mixing colors, spatial perception and perspective. Art is taught once a week in an extended session.

View Elementary School Virtual Art Gallery

Music is taught first utilizing the Orff Schulwerk Method, which is a way of teaching children about music that engages their mind and body through a mixture of singing, dancing, acting, and the use of percussion instruments (xylophones, recorders, drums). Drama is a natural outflow of stories, creativity, expression, and passion. Students participate in Drama Residency, where classes collaboratively write original plays based on a theme related to social justice or history. Grade 5 students work with professional screenwriters to create original screenplays through the Young Storytellers program.

Middle Schoolers are encouraged to expand their understanding of the visual arts by using a variety of materials, tools, techniques, and ideas to create work that develops skills and self-expression. We ask our students to approach every class and project with an open mind and an understanding that we are all “new artists,” seeking greater understanding of ourselves and others in the context of visual art. Students hone their skills in classes including Explorations in Art (2-D multimedia making), Yearbook, Mixed Media/Photography, A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words (contemporary illustration, animation), and Woodwork.

View Middle School Virtual Art Gallery

Music is a universal form of expression. Students benefit from studying music because it uniquely develops forms of intelligence and experiences unlike any other art. Music-making promotes self-growth and self-knowledge while uniting people with values that benefit individuals and societies. The Middle School music program offers young musicians a variety of opportunities to explore their interests and be challenged as individuals and as ensemble members. Our music faculty provide engaging classes in Guitar, Percussion, Glee, Band (Brass, Winds, and Snare Drums) Keyboard, and Pop Ensemble.

Middle School Drama offers students an opportunity to delve into the fundamentals of both story and stagecraft. In “Improv” students focus on scene, character and relationship development, story structure, and short-form games. Students performances also include script-based work, adapted stories, and original sketches. All our classes strive to build strong foundational performance skills and stress the importance of ensemble. We also encourage students to develop their individual passions by exposing them to the beauty and power of art. Our aim is for students to feel free, fearless, and confident in being their smartest, most authentic, most dynamic selves on stage in front of an audience.

Students participate in a wide variety of visual arts experiences — drawing, design, book arts, and cartooning. They gain self-confidence as they are encouraged to take creative and expressive risks, solve problems, and think expansively. They learn how to thoughtfully "read" and analyze their own work and the art of others, as they learn how to edit and re-work their endeavors. Students work in a variety of media as they are encouraged to acquire visual awareness and to share with color, shape, line and texture what and how they think about and see their world in order to express their unique voices and perspectives.

View Upper School Virtual Art Gallery

Our Music & Dance programs are diverse, reflecting our philosophical commitment to the value of the nonlinear creative process and the full development of each unique individual. Although all of our young people study our core academic subject matter, not everyone learns best in the same way. New Roads has developed an arts program in which students can choose from among several arts classes: some have prerequisites while others do not. Although different in style and modality, our hope is that all students begin to find their own unique creative voice as well as to learn and explore the ways our common humanity and cultural differences are expressed in artistic creation and perception. Some of the courses we offer are Dance Studio, Dance Technique/Ballet/Modern, Hip Hop Dance, Chamber Music, Chorus, Jazz/Blues Ensemble(s), Music Theory, Music Production, World Music/Percussion.

The central focus of our Upper School Drama program is to help students develop the tools they need to tell stories that matter on stage. Our coursework includes classes in scene study, improvisation, directing, and technical theater. These, along with mainstage performances, offer students a wide range of opportunity and experience. Students are exposed to both classical and contemporary dramatic literature including works by Euripides, William Shakespeare, Martin McDonagh, Anna Deavere Smith, and Sarah Ruhl. Learning to be an active, engaged part of an ensemble is also a key component to our program. We want our students to be their most authentic and dynamic selves on stage in front of an audience and to understand that art can be powerful and potent force in this world.