When junior Sophia Gidi stood in front of her fourth grade class to audition for the Spring Show, a yearly musical production performed by the St. John’s Singers, she started crying out of stage fright.
Now, after participating for many years in choir and developing her vocal skills, she feels much more comfortable and confident as a performer. Gidi is now at a place where she feels significantly less nervous.
The Lower School requires all students to attend visual arts and music classes. Lower school visual arts teacher Carla Wall says that it is important for students to be exposed to every art form at a young age.
“I feel like it’s rare for students to say that they don’t like art in lower school,” Wall said. “The beauty of the system is that by the end of lower school, students have a better idea of what their favorite thing is.”
Lower School teachers also have the freedom to set up their own curriculums without having to follow government-set guidelines.
“In public schools, the Department of Education determines what teachers should teach,” Wall said. “I appreciate the freedom here as I can be inspired by current events, adjust my curriculum autonomously and be supported by the school community.”
Similarly, music teacher Jeanna Villanueva has been teaching in the Lower School since 2022, and music has been an integral part of her life since the age of five.
Through the experiential learning in her classroom, Villanueva hopes for her students to both develop technical skills and inspire creativity through improvisation.
“To watch my students grow from just using their talking voice to eventually being able to sing beautifully is magical for me,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva appreciates that the School places as much emphasis on the fine arts program as academics and athletics, which is something that is not as significant at some schools.
“The fact that I can see these students three times in a seven-day rotation is a really big deal,” Villanueva said.
She notes that music often connects to feelings, imagination and creativity.
“We want kids to get in touch with themselves, and they discover it through the arts. Music makes us human,” Villanueva said. “We will never know, maybe inside our classroom is the next conductor of a symphony.”
Music class sparked senior Pierce Downey’s interest in music when he was in fifth grade. There was a showcase in lower school where the teachers introduced his grade to all of the instruments, and that was what made him want to play the trumpet.
“Without that experience, I don’t know if I even would’ve played trumpet in middle and high school,” Downey said.
In addition to grade-level classes, there are also many combined classes between grades. For visual arts, residential artists come every year to lead interactive projects with students, such as the box city from last year. Similarly, the middle and high schoolers in the band have also worked together.
“Working with high schoolers as a middle schooler gave me a little bit more hope to want to continue music,” Downey said. “It allows you to see the next level and it makes you more optimistic rather than discouraged.”
While students are still required to take fine arts classes, they now have more opportunities and freedoms to choose what they want.
Hellmann states that the fine arts not only fosters creativity in the artistic aspect but also helps develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
“Many students choose not to take art, because they don’t think it has anything to do with what they will study in college,” Hellmann said. “However, the problem solving skills and the creativity you gain from taking art classes applies to every career path.”
Junior Conrad Moore, an avid 2D and 3D artist, has been doing fine arts since 6th grade. He believes that being exposed to the arts from a young age is important, especially since creativity is really valuable in today’s technologically advanced world.
Likewise, Gidi believes that students put a lot of academic pressure on themselves, and having something that they enjoy during the day is crucial to daily life.
Junior Sammie Gross has tried every avenue in the fine arts, from plays and musicals to singing and dancing.
“It’s a part of my day that I can look forward to and have fun with and just relax,” Gross said.
For Moore, art has helped him develop his creativity, express his individuality, and even be a mental and physical break when other aspects of his life, like academics, are difficult.
“Although it may seem hard at first, sticking with it shows that you have grit and will work out in the long run,” Moore said.
