More Than a Studio: Art as a Way of Learning

Georgetown Day School has long incorporated the arts as a cornerstone of its holistic approach to education, focusing on the "whole child," honoring curiosity, uniqueness, voice, and identity. Our founding educators used the arts to help create meaningful, relevant learning experiences; to build critical thinking, resilience, and purpose; as well as to teach empathy and create connection and community amongst students. They recognized that the creative arts offer diverse avenues for learning, including opportunities for deep self-exploration and authentic expression, along with emotional regulation and the development of self-worth.

GDS founder Aggie O’Neil famously said that a “...healthy child uses the creative arts to help make himself a complete human being.”

From our school’s very beginning until now, art teachers at GDS have often been not just educators but artists themselves, with well-established, well-cultivated artistic lives and backgrounds that help to provide students with the added benefit of their own personal experiences. Art classes serve as avenues for self-expression and are designed to help students build discipline and form connections to the world, within themselves, and with one another. Art is also integrated into the curriculum on an everyday basis, both through in-classroom activities as well as through studio or performing arts.

MS theater teacher Marcel Smith describes his improv classes as a place where students are able to “...step into someone else's shoes and explore another character's life and journey, helping them to not only gain empathy, but to better understand themselves.”

In Sasha Soper and Regina La Valley’s MS band classes, students use music to “...work to find a balance between individual and group identity,” said Regina.

HS jazz and instrumental music teacher Brad Linde said he loves teaching jazz and improvised music because “... it allows for each student to find their personal voice.”

HS studio art teacher and department chair Sarah Riley said of her classes and department, “...each project becomes an opportunity not just to grow technically, but also to explore personal meaning and make something that is both individual and connected to a broader community. In that way, the studio becomes more than just a place to make things; it becomes a place where students learn to understand themselves and each other, to value process as much as product, and to use creative expression as a way of participating in the world around them.”

There are also art programs and projects that demonstrate unique approaches faculty and students have taken in their use of the creative arts to honor GDS core values. Here are a few:

Dia de los Muertos Altar

Each year, in celebration of the multi-day holiday Dia de los Muertos, which has its roots in Mexico and honors the memory of the deceased, LMS art teachers and students collaborate on a large communal altar set up in the lobby of the Lower Middle School. A variety of artworks from every LMS grade are combined in this joyous and thoughtful display meant to honor the artists’ own passed loved ones in the tradition of the holiday.

“The altar was something I felt was really important to have at GDS, because often children, and even adults, can be scared of death,” said LMS art teacher Ashley Ortiz on the creation of the first collaborative altar. Ashley first had the idea to build the altar after the pandemic, as she felt it provided an opportunity to help her students process a heavy subject. “I love to teach about the history of Dia de los Muertos because I think it provides a different view of death than we typically have in mainstream American culture…The focus is more on celebrating the lives of loved ones, rather than just on mourning their loss,” Ashley said.

Beyond the study of culture and the practice of art, the project offers a deep sense of connection and community, cultivating support and understanding among the students. And it grows larger every year. This year, the visual arts team prepared a special ofrenda, or altar, in memory of their beloved colleague Victor Vazquez Vincent, who taught Spanish in the Lower and Middle Schools for nearly two decades. In a spirit of compassion and kindness, they also invited staff and faculty to share their own creative works on the large altar to honor their own lost loved ones.

In Bloom Memorialized Portraits

Art teachers have been known to repeat projects that have proved themselves tried and true when introducing students to a new technique, artistic style, or movement. They often try new projects as well. A new project can sometimes take on a life of its own, changing or growing in unexpected ways.

Such was the case when last year, LMS visual arts teacher John Headley asked his eighth grade students to work on a portrait series of victims of racial violence in the style of artist Charly Palmer. As part of the Black Lives Matter movement, Palmer created the now-famous July 2020 cover of Time magazine for an issue entitled “America Must Change.” This issue featured beautiful but mournful portraits of George Stinney and James Baldwin, paired with American iconography and flowers. The floral elements that Palmer uses in his work represent life, death, love, beauty, and joy.

“We talked a little bit about the fact that when people die suddenly or even violently, a couple of things happen,” said John when proposing the project to his students. “Often, the only image the public sees of these subjects are the images posted by the mainstream media, which have a tendency to be harsh or unflattering.” John wanted his students to see these subjects differently, to think about the beauty they experienced throughout their lives and to present them to the world in this way through their art.

“Through creating this art, we’re trying to, in a way, reclaim their humanity,” said John.

Read more about the project » 

Identity Art Show

“About eight years ago, while serving as a judge for the AP Studio Art exams, I began to notice a recurring theme: identity,” said Michelle Cobb, former HS studio arts teacher and department chair. “Year after year, students across the country were using their art to explore who they were. At GDS, I saw a perfect opportunity to create a dedicated ‘Identity’ show based on eight core identifiers. The challenge was guiding students to explore these aspects of themselves with depth and authenticity. It took courage to share their discoveries with the larger community,” said Michelle. 

Now in its ninth year, the project is a major component of the studio arts curriculum and aligns with the GDS ideals of honoring identity and encouraging students to be their authentic selves. Based on eight identifiers, including culture, race, family, socio-economics, sexuality, gender, ability, and mental health, the Identity Project encourages students to reflect on these core aspects of self, explore them deeply, and express them creatively. In addition, students are encouraged to ask their families questions about their heritage and the meaning of their names.

Clay Connections

In HS Foundations Ceramics & Sculpture, a class taught by studio arts teacher and department chair Sarah Riley, students began a new project last year called Clay Connections. After spending the year practicing general techniques, including slab building, coil building, wheel throwing, surface design, and glazing, alongside learning about ceramics history and sculpture as a means of expression, Sarah asked her students to have a conversation with an adult in the GDS community in order to learn about their experiences, values, or anything else of interest. After these conversations, she asked her students to identify a theme, moment, or detail and to translate it into a ceramic piece. They were free to choose the form and technique based on the skills they practiced in class, receiving minimal guidance on how to structure the conversation or what the final piece should look like.

“I wanted the project to be driven by their own interpretation and creativity. This bit of unknown might have felt a little uncomfortable, but it created enough space for unique voices to come through and for students to practice the skill of connection,” said Sarah.

Expounding on her curricular approach in words that could have been said more broadly about the approach to education at GDS, Sarah explained that every project begins with foundational skill-building and experimentation, and always leads toward opportunities for students to make meaningful, self-directed choices. A part of her curriculum design is about finding the right balance between structure and freedom.

“When students are invited to express themselves and interpret ideas in their own way, the learning environment naturally becomes one that honors the integrity and worth of each individual,” said Sarah. “It also creates space for community, connections between individuals, and across our school.”