Visual Arts

See the Visual Arts Video

The GPS visual arts curriculum rests on the premise that visual arts experiences foster flexible, imaginative, analytical, and humanistic thought. Visual communication engages the whole student, facilitates self-identity and perceptual awareness, fosters individual voice, and promotes sensitivity and respect for the voices of others. With enviable facilities and professional artists as faculty, the GPS visual arts program engages the uninitiated student and meets the needs of more advanced artists.

The visual arts program moves from a middle school foundation with multi-disciplinary experiences into more exploratory courses in the upper school. Students discover their drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking talents at the middle school level and have the opportunity to show their work in school galleries. Creativity is highly valued even as the foundational skills are being taught. Upper level courses are offered in ceramics, drawing, digital graphics design, fused glass, painting, print-making, and sculpture. Emphasis is placed on integrating studio experiences, group critiques and written research activities. In addition, the department offers Advanced Placement courses in drawing and painting as an opportunity for highly motivated student artists to work on the college level. Art History is offered as a yearlong Advanced Placement course or as a semester overview.

The studio art curriculum at GPS is further enriched by opportunities to exhibit in school and in regional venues and visit museums and galleries, both locally and in major cities. Students may also participate in national talent searches, attend the Governor's School for the Arts, and interact with visiting artists through our Guest Artist Series.

As students progress through the visual arts curriculum, they gain competency in visual communication while developing organizational and group thinking skills and strategies that are increasingly important in our increasingly visually oriented multi-cultural and technological world and workplace.

An eighth grade art student, using marbled tissue paper, a compass and protractor, created this Japanese Mon, or family crest. The goal of the project was to create a unified design using color and repeated patterns.