Visual Art
The visual art program at CSW inspires and challenges every student–of any skill level–to dig deep and access their artistic voice. Our teachers help students uncover and nurture that potential with strong foundation and advanced courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, filmmaking and digital art.
Our art facilities boast studio spaces, darkrooms, a multimedia lab, large-scale printers, pottery wheels and a kiln. With more than 50 courses to choose from, students can try their hands at making a horror film, wearable art or an eco-sculpture out of found natural materials.
Our art facilities boast studio spaces, darkrooms, a multimedia lab, large-scale printers, pottery wheels and a kiln. With more than 50 courses to choose from, students can try their hands at making a horror film, wearable art or an eco-sculpture out of found natural materials.
Courses are designed to help students develop visual literacy, gain high levels of skill and hone the ability to critically evaluate creative work.
Assignments often require students to explore different approaches, encouraging them to take creative risks and become innovative problem solvers.
Students who wish to pursue higher education in the arts are regularly admitted into the top art schools in the nation, including Cooper Union, Rhode Island School of Design, Art Institute of Chicago and Massachusetts College of Art.
Check out the CSW calendar to see upcoming gallery events on campus, as well. See you at the next End of Mod Art Show!
Assignments often require students to explore different approaches, encouraging them to take creative risks and become innovative problem solvers.
Students who wish to pursue higher education in the arts are regularly admitted into the top art schools in the nation, including Cooper Union, Rhode Island School of Design, Art Institute of Chicago and Massachusetts College of Art.
Check out the CSW calendar to see upcoming gallery events on campus, as well. See you at the next End of Mod Art Show!
Sample Courses
List of 8 items.
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3D Printing: Body Edition
In this course, students will explore 3D printing technology and materials to create adornments and small objects for the body. We will learn basic hardware and software skills, along with skills rooted in the hand to further manipulate materials. Concepts will relate to the wide and varied history of adornment, jewelry, clothing, and sculpture. -
Animated Film
In this course, students will explore a range of animation techniques across both analog and digital platforms, including long-exposure photography, digital scanning, and 3D tracking and compositing. Approaching animation as a concept, rather than a technique related to any specific technology, they will learn how to think across multiple art disciplines, incorporating a range of mediums into their projects. -
Black & White Digital Photo
The goal of this course is for students to discover the expressive possibilities of monochrome digital photography. Exploring the unique beauty and subtlety of grayscale images, they are asked to make personal visual statements. As in all of our digital photography courses, Adobe Photoshop software is viewed as a vehicle for making qualitative changes to views of the external world—as opposed to being the basis for the creation of computer- generated art. Assignments include portrait and self-portrait, landscape, fashion, still life, and street photography. -
Clay, Fire, Water, and Emptiness
This course was previously called “Raku." In this ceramics course, we employed a firing process during which pieces are removed from the kiln while red hot, and then placed directly into materials, such as leaves or paper, to be reduced in an air‑free atmosphere. Finally, the pots are cooled instantly in cold water. -
Drawing: Abstraction and Process
In this class, students build upon the foundational rendering skills developed in Naturalism and Observation and move from rendering the world naturalistically to embracing issues of abstraction to varying degrees. This class includes an in-depth exploration of the principles of design and the construction of composition, as well as the processes of intuition, gesture, and mark-making, emphasizing personal self-expression to gain a richer understanding of non-objective approaches to drawing. -
Experimental Film
In this course, students will explore various alternatives to traditional narrative and documentary filmmaking, including non-continuity editing, video installation art, and methods for manipulating video file data. Using a variety of technology and software, they will create three projects designed to teach them these skills while helping them develop their own personal mode of filmmaking. In addition to learning experimental techniques, they will also examine the ideas and attitudes upon which the genre is based by watching and discussing numerous works by prominent experimental filmmakers. -
From Venus to Guerrilla Girls: Women Redefining Self through Art
In this course students will become familiar with art made by women (women’s art history), the multitude of subject matters of women’s art, the systematic and political influences that affected women’s ability to make art and the subject matter of their art, and historical changes that allowed for an emergence of women’s art on a larger scale. Art projects will examine issues, materials, and art forms that relate to the women’s art movement and women’s art in general. This course awards credit toward the social justice requirement. -
Sculpture: Wearable Art
In this course, students make art that can be worn on the body. Students use traditional sewing materials but also work with non-traditional materials, with a strong focus on concepts and the transformation of materials. Some sewing experience is strongly recommended.
Tom, Visual Art Teacher
Graduation Requirements
Students must complete coursework in three of four disciplines.
Grade 9: 2 Blocks
Grade 10: 2 Blocks
Grade 11: 2 Blocks
Grade 12: 2 Blocks
Visual Art Faculty
List of 6 members.
CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.