Displays of Art and Design

The art work of all of our boys is on display for the Winter Art Show, part of our Winter Festival of Art and Music. The Festival is warming an otherwise particularly cold week.

The Winter Art Show displays the boys' work from first trimester art, shop, and pottery classes. They are now on display throughout the school. A look at the art displayed reveals how art classes at Saint David's reflect the interdisciplinary approach to learning that we have incorporated throughout the curriculum.

To cite just a few:

Boys in Omega study jobs and careers, in related art classes they create water color self-portraits. In the portraits they are dressed as someone in the career of their choice.

First graders who study the landmarks and geography of New York City in social studies create works in the style of Kandinsky that depict an imaginative view of their city community.

Third graders employ basic design technology as they construct machines with wheels, axels, and levers.

Fourth graders immersed in yearlong study of civilizations, learn to draw and paint the human figure after discovering how the ancient Egyptians and Greeks realized human form; and

Eighth graders hone their skills in observational drawing in preparation for their upcoming humanities class trip to Italy where they will sketch insitu.

The beautiful, thoughtful works of art our boys create are impressive. They are created with thought. These are works of art created through careful study of master artists, analysis of the elements of design, and connections the boys made to what they are learning in art class and other disciplines of knowledge.

The art our boys produce underscore our value of 'the aesthetic' at Saint David's.

Comments

NE Patriot Tom Brady at Saint David’s

Last night, Saint David’s was honored to have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, four time Superbowl champion and three-time MVP winner Tom Brady, as the guest speaker for our Alumni Parents Council Lecture Series. Tom, who is the father of one of our Saint David's boys, addressed a standing-room-only audience in Hyman Hall comprised of our eighth graders, alumni, alumni parents and faculty. Friendly, introspective, witty, and wise, he directed his talk to the delighted eighth graders in the front of the room, and focused on the topic of leadership. “You are the young men and leaders of Saint David’s,” he noted. Tom debunked the perception that leaders are born not made, and credited his leadership abilities to “standing up to and facing fears” and to “cultivating a mental strength,” which he cited as “more important than being physically strong.” He also stressed the importance of working hard, honoring teamwork, believing in oneself and being a good lis...

Fascinating Art Talk by Michelle Marder Kamhi at Grandparents Event

Yesterday evening, independent scholar and critic Michelle Marder Kamhi ( www.mmkamhi.com ), co-editor with husband Louis Torres of Aristos , an online review of arts; author of Who Says That's Art? A Commonsense View of the Visual Arts ; and grandmother of two Saint David's boys, gave a thought provoking talk on art for our grandparent community. An advocate of objective standards in arts scholarship and criticism, Ms. Kamhi focused her talk on the ways in which art critics such as Clement Greenberg promoted the shift from representational art to abstraction. Kamhi argues that the abstract and post-modern art prevalent today, which often requires explanation by docents in order to be understood, goes against art's purpose. Taking issue with Greenberg's contention that representation is an expendable convention of painting, she quoted the late art critic John Canaday: "Art is the tangible expression of the intangible values that men live by." ...

Digital Universe Unit With AMNH-Hayden Planetarium Kicks Off

The second year of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History-Hayden Planetarium kicked off on Friday when the sixth grade had their first session of the Digital Universe unit. The session included a private viewing at the planetarium in which boys were able to explore the entire universe. They and their teachers were invited to view the show from the vantage point of the floor in the center of the round theater, staring up into the apex of the dome. What an amazing perspective! Museum educator and astro-visualization expert Nathan Belomy took the boys on a tour of the observable universe, allowing them to get a feel for the scale of distance and size in the universe. In a fun activity related to scale, the boys set down a volleyball (representing the sun) at 79th Street, and walked for blocks down Columbus avenue with the planets in our solar system represented by a variety of smaller objects – a cupcake sprinkle, a marble – predicting and then m...

Headmaster's Blog

Search This Blog