Academic Update

The Arts continued from page 11

Over the winter, Hip Hop artist DJ Ace visited the Upper School to talk about the origins of Hip Hop and the importance of vinyl records and the use of turntables as instruments.

▶ IT WAS WALL-TO-WALL ART for the annual AP Art Exhibition at the Upper School — there were 71 AP Art portfolios on display, filling up every nook and cranny of the upstairs art rooms.

“It was an ocean of art!” exclaimed Andrew Hall, chair of Visual and Performing Arts. “It was everywhere. “This started with six kids in the basement of Maher Avenue 28 years ago,” Hall said. “It snowballed from there!”

Portfolios on display arose in the three popular AP Art classes Brunswick offers: Drawing, 2-D Design, and 3-D Design. Hall said he typically gets 50-70 students enrolled in these classes, and with an Upper School population of about 425, that represents “a big chunk of the school population.”

Hall said his goal has been to make all students welcome in AP Art classes and to make art an integral part of the Upper School experience — “as strong as everything else” at Brunswick.

▶ ARTS NIGHT, a celebration of Lower School arts and music, featured an hour-long concert in Burke Field House followed by an all-school gallery walk, during which over 850 pieces of art — four pieces from each Lower School student — were on display.

“The Lower School was filled with colorful art for the show,” said Kim Amussen, art teacher.

Boys worked in many different mediums — drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking, collage — and studied and discussed artists from all over the world.

Exhibits featured colorful ceramic turtles, Don Quixote collages, Trojan helmets, porcupine collages, and grumpy monkey paintings — among many others. On top of all that, an all-school bumble bee project was draped throughout the Atrium.

“The boys had an exciting year in the art room, chock full of new artistic experiences and challenges,” Amussen said. “We hope parents enjoyed looking at our art as much as we enjoyed creating it!”

▶ AN ANNUAL DAY IN CLAY event invites fourth grade boys to celebrate culture through pottery.

The single-day, hands-on workshop sees boys get their hands busy with clay as they work to “start a threedimensional conversation with a culture rich in patterns, symbols, and imagery.”

This year, the workshop took place over the winter and featured visiting artist Cliff Mendelson, who continued on page 13