Arts

Visual and Performing Arts

Performing and visual arts are central to the Country Day curriculum and vital to the life of our school community. Students throughout all grades gain experience in a wide range of visual media and have regular opportunities to perform in musical groups and dramatic productions. Through the arts, students express their creativity and learn to appreciate the art of other peoples and cultures. They become confident in presenting their work and accomplished at executing independent projects.

Visual arts introduce students to such media as painting, clay, drawing, printmaking, weaving, and computer graphic design starting in kindergarten. In the Middle School, students take woodshop in addition to studio art and may elect to take sewing. Students in grades 5 and 6 take a printing class, using our unique print shop with equipment for hand lettering and printing, and learn computer graphics and video techniques. Upper School students choose from a range of art electives to satisfy the art requirement of a course each trimester.

Making music is a significant activity from the early grades. Through regular music instruction, students learn music theory and sight reading, and come to appreciate music of different styles and periods. Beginning in grade 2, students may elect to take piano lessons. Country Day also offers lessons during the school day in woodwind, brass, or percussion instruments. Middle and Upper School students may join the chorus for each division, open to all interested students. The popular choruses, with more than 50 percent of Middle and Upper School students participating, give three major concerts a year. Students may choose to play in the various school bands and ensembles as well.
  
The Lower School play productions presented each class year are a Country Day tradition. Among the most treasured of these annual presentations is the Kindergarten Circus, in which students take the parts of the animals and performance acts. Third grade students present a fall musical representing the consolidation of acting, singing, and public speaking skills. In the Middle and Upper Schools, students perform in annual musicals that involve over 100 students as performers and stage crew. In recent years, musical productions have included The Wizard of Oz, Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, and Guys and Dolls.