Primary School

The Kent Place Primary art program offers children an opportunity to build skills as well as express ideas. The early program focuses on building a solid vocabulary based on the elements of design and composition. Children create in a variety of media and study the work of master artists in each discipline. Grades 2 and 3 children review their knowledge of basic concepts through an interdisciplinary approach to art. The program during these two years complements the children’s social studies curriculum. In later grades, children study topics in art history, beginning with cave painting and progressing to modern art. Projects in these grades encourage students to apply their knowledge of composition and make judgments about their own artistic progress.

Middle School

The Middle School art program emphasizes the concept that art is our most essential, universal language. The curriculum gives students tools for creating, for communicating and understanding others’ communication and for making informed judgments. This is achieved through exposure to a variety of artwork and media in a nurturing studio environment where imagination and creativity can manifest themselves freely in the works produced.

Upper School

The Upper School studio art curriculum is a program of sequential learning with structured objectives providing an opportunity for individual student growth in understanding aesthetics, art history and the development of specific artistic skills. The department emphasizes development of the student’s personal creative thinking and visual statement.

Upper School girls can choose among a wide range of electives in the visual arts, such as drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, film and digital imaging. Their experience culminates in a portfolio of their best work, compiled during the senior year. Our most committed students have the opportunity to enroll in an Advanced Placement Portfolio course, which allows them to develop and execute an independent project. Our students routinely share their work by exhibiting it in the hallways and in the Kent Place Gallery.