Studio arts are as essential to learning as academic classes, serving to develop creativity, problem-solving skills, and engagement across subjects. Research has shown that participation in visual and studio arts can improve overall academic performance and creative thinking, and supports motivation and self-directed learning through making and craft processes.
High Mowing’s students explore techniques in a variety of fine and manual arts classes that begin in kindergarten and expand through high school. Fully stocked studios provide opportunities for students to practice techniques and refine their craft in a variety of disciplines, including:
- Drawing and painting: Students learn to develop artistic methods of seeing and working beginning in kindergarten. They also develop artistic knowledge as they explore mediums including graphite, charcoal, watercolor, pen and ink, collage, pastel, oil pastel and oil paint.
- Stained glass: Students learn the skills necessary to cut glass, foil each piece, and solder them together to make a stained glass window. Advanced students focus on creating their own designs.
- Metalwork: Primarily working in copper, students learn basic techniques and use them to create beautiful and useful objects, such as bracelets and raised copper bowls.
- Woodworking: Beginning in grade four, students learn to use basic workshop tools and safety practices through practical projects like window boxes and benches, and they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various types of wood. Older students learn to read construction drawings and turn drawings into finished pieces.
- Pottery: In our pottery studio, affectionately known as “The Pottery,” students learn in a manner resembling how apprentices historically did: Clay preparation (mixing the clays by hand from raw materials), hand building and throwing on the wheel. Over time, they can also learn the basics of glaze formulation and firing the kiln.
- Bookbinding: Students create a variety of book forms including hand-stitched journals, hard-cover notebooks and tear-away booklets. Some projects include decorative techniques such as collage, painting, linoleum-block or other types of printing.
- Knitting and fiber arts: Beginner knitters in our lower school build awareness in reading patterns, selecting materials, trying different knitting styles and stitches, and correcting mistakes. Intermediate and advanced students execute more complicated stitch patterns and shapes and may progress to designing their own knitwear designs.
- Photography: While it is easy to point and click, the skill of communicating an idea or feeling through images is more challenging. Students explore how each part of a camera can be engaged to support a message or feeling. Using digital single-lens reflex cameras, students explore framing, lighting and motion to create photo essays.
- Filmmaking: Students learn about all aspects, including script writing, casting, acting, lighting, directing, and operating cameras. After the footage is created using professional cameras and lenses, students learn editing skills to create a finished short film.
These offerings underscore High Mowing’s belief that artistic practice is integral to a complete education. By engaging mind and hands together, students learn to see, think, and create with clarity and purpose. Some High Mowing students go on to top art colleges and universities, including the Rhode Island School of Design and Savannah College of Art and Design, while others pursue more traditional careers, carrying with them the skills, creativity, and appreciation for beauty that a strong foundation in the arts provides.
For information about High Mowing and Pine Hill schools, visit highmowing.org/ and for research on how participation in visual and studio arts can improve academic performance, see Egana-delSol, 2023 and Kouhia & Härkki, 2023.
Jessica Hipp is the director of enrollment and communications at High Mowing School.
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