2 minute read
Fine & Performing Arts: Creativity, Expression, Reflection
A recent study showed that integrating arts with other subjects improved test scores and student learning measures overall. Researchers also discovered that skills learned in the visual arts helped with literacy skills and that playing an instrument led to better math outcomes. (Source: Forbes.com)
At GPS, we recognize the value of integrating arts into nearly every facet of life. Therefore the arts are not limited to studio spaces and stage performances. Arts education, as an essential component of our curriculum, is embraced by every discipline including STEM and humanities.
Guiding and nurturing a young student with a creative and curious spirit in her artistic journey is the primary purpose of the GPS Fine Arts experience in Middle School. Not only do our Middle School students have arts classes built into their daily schedules, but they also experience a rich, multidisciplinary program that allows them to connect and better understand what they are learning in other disciplines through their art classes.
From sixth-grade year through senior year at GPS, girls have nearly 50 fine and performing arts options—both in school and after—from which to choose, including music, theater, dance, and visual and digital arts.
Performing Arts
Boasting one of the largest theaters in Chattanooga, GPS offers thespians, dancers, singers, and musicians myriad opportunities to fulfill their performance dreams. The Middle School theater arts program seeks to be highly inclusive, welcoming each student who wants to perform, video, or work backstage on the coordinate performances with McCallie School students.
A model program for dance education throughout the country, GPS dance provides beginning and advanced dancers with appropriate outlets for discovery and mastery of skills in three professional dance studios. Middle School students may enroll in our dance extracurricular program—Motion Makers—and receive extra performance experience and training in technique and improvisation. If she finds her passion for dance, she can audition for Terpsichord, the longest-running high school contemporary dance company in Tennessee.
Vocal performance is another exciting program at GPS, featuring a Middle School coordinate choir that practices and performs with McCallie. At the upper school level, advanced singers have many opportunities to perform, from GPS Singers to coordinate Candlelight Choir and Chamber Singers.
The GPS instrumental music curriculum boasts one of the largest performance-aimed programs in the area. The program includes several levels of strings and wind ensembles, from beginning to intermediate, while Advanced Orchestra and Wind Ensemble provide the perfect outlet for more experienced musicians. Students can pursue their instrumental interests through classes and a variety of music activities: Junior and Senior Clinics, soloist and small groups joint recitals with McCallie School, and Tango Strings, a talented performance quartet widely known and sought-after in the Chattanooga area.
Fine Arts
Visual arts, or fine arts, is created primarily for aesthetic purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically in the areas of painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture. Our fine arts curriculum offers students a strong foundation in art elements and design principles while developing organizational and group-thinking skills.
—MEG PERSINGER BROCK ’79, FINE ARTS DEPARTMENTCHAIR
