Visual Arts

A flourishing visual arts program includes many strands - the cultural, the practical, and the aesthetic. Westminster provides opportunities for all students to pursue their individual interests in making art and to expand their understanding of its role in their lives and the cultures of the world. 

Beginning in the Elementary School, Westminster students enjoy regularly scheduled classes in art where they are introduced to the limitless possibilities of media, ideas, and expression that exist in a strong curriculum.  Against a backdrop of the richness of traditional forms and the adventure of contemporary issues and expressions, art students, as they move through the divisions, are encouraged in the creative process as they learn to see their own works in the context of classroom production and in the larger world of art making. 

A gifted faculty of 10 teachers, who are also practicing artists, nurtures, encourages, challenges, and validates young people as they work to gain sharper aesthetic awareness and judgment.  Clearer personal vision, well-developed problem solving and decision-making skills, and a discerning sensibility toward their visual environment are expected outcomes of this experience, and for the most serious students, the sequence of courses and open studio work can develop advanced skills that are the foundation for college and perhaps careers in the arts. 

In the Westminster art program we make art of every kind in a myriad of media, we learn a shared language, we reflect, alone and together, on our attempts, we continually refine and search for meaning in a process designed to celebrate growth and the development of informed, aware citizens.