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Visual Arts & Media

Visual Arts Curriculum

The visual arts curriculum at Kinkaid is rich and diverse, building upon fundamentals and allowing students to explore multiple mediums with guidance and encouragement.

Artist Spotlights

Ceramics

Students will learn and explore the nature of clay, various hand-building methods, throwing on the potter’s wheel, surface enrichment, decorative process, and many different glaze applications. Students will create and grow their body of work while making functional, sculptural, and abstract works. Art criticism and art history are an important foundational part of their studies.

Photography

Students gain an understanding of manual photography for digital and analog (film) cameras and will study still life, portraiture, and landscape photography.  Students experience the traditional black and white darkroom as well as the digital lab. An advanced photography student has the opportunity to work with digital, 35mm, medium-format, and large-format cameras.

Film

Students explore film through hands-on production, while also exploring film history and theory. They learn narrative, documentary, and experimental structures, while developing skills in screenwriting, cinematography, directing, and editing. Advanced students explore filmmaking in a sandbox structure, exploring projects of their own design, while working on collaborative, class-wide projects.

Drawing & Painting

Students work with a variety of media, including charcoal, ink, acrylic, and watercolor. After learning basic skills, students have the opportunity to develop a unified body of work with an emphasis on personal voice and expression.

Sculpture

Students focus on the elements of art and design through the processes of woodworking, metalworking, and casting techniques. Advanced students create independent projects that challenge them to think about sculpture as a gateway to artistic practices such as public art, installation art, and architecture.

Graphic Design

This course focuses on 2D graphic design and the discipline of visual communication. Students explore computer programs, color theory, typography, and the design process.

Advanced Portfolio Development

This course emphasizes the development and production of an advanced body of work in the student’s choice of media, unified by a personal concept. Completed portfolios will be suitable for presentation to an art school or college fine arts program.

Introduction to Visual Arts

Students develop visual analysis skills and build an art vocabulary through a study of the elements and principles of design. Students become familiar with a variety of artists and their styles as they explore 2-D and 3-D media. 

Mixed Media and Printmaking

Students use a variety of media, including drawing, painting, collage, assemblage, and printmaking to develop 2-D and 3-D explorations, sketchbook process, project studies, and artworks. Advanced students work to present and develop a portfolio of their art work for portfolio reviews, college admissions, and senior exhibitions.

 

LS Art Classroom

Lower School Art Curriculum

The Lower School art curriculum is centered on providing authentic, choice-based artistic experiences for students of all ages. The emphasis is on creative problem solving, media exploration and personal expression.

Elementary art instruction is geared toward providing a cohesive studio foundation as well as developing the student’s artistic interests. Lower School students of all ages are encouraged to explore different types of expression through art, and they have several opportunities to work with visiting artists or to participate in master classes to develop new skills.

LS art classroom photo

Lower School Dot Day

Early in the Fall, Lower School Art students create "Dot Day" art projects to display in the library.

Celebrated by both children and adults, International Dot Day is a day to connect, collaborate, and create. It is also a great day to foster self-expression, and the Kinkaid Lower School actively and enthusiastically participates in "Dot Day" every year!