Voyager 2019

The intellectual and creative pursuits of KENT PLACE SCHOOL

2019

The Arts: The Soul of the Kent Place Curriculum

By Julie Gentile, Director of Studies Recently, I came across some black-andwhite photos carelessly layered in the back of a photo album that chronicled my high school years. Those images had been my work. I spent many blissfully quiet hours in my school’s darkroom, mixing chemicals, waiting, and watching as the world I saw through my camera’s lens appeared on the paper. In black and white, my friends were captured in moments that their adult selves might remember as embarrassing, or confusing, or joyful. Emerging through that development process were skills and habits that have served me ever since, and in ways I never could have imagined.

Empathy, the first step in the powerful design-thinking process articulated by the Stanford d.school, has been identified as a core leadership skill. Arts education at KPS offers countless opportunities for students to explore their own identity and voice, as well as to gain a greater understanding of others’ experiences. It also has an influence on our students’ values, bringing about an empathic sensibility. Study of the visual and performing arts presents time for students to practice empathy as community members and as collaborators with their peers. Whether they’re working together to develop a script or to find the best blend

MS Arts Electives

3D Design Can You Build It? Yes, You Can! Let’s Face It Open and Shut Dance 7/8 Dance Makers GirlChoir Bel Canto Orchestra Handbells Behind the Scenes Theater Workshop Middle School Musical/ Theater Production

Beginner flute classes

US Arts Electives

AP Portfolio students and seniors Maddie Denenberg and Lizzy Chrin create art for their portfolios.

Observation of daily details, followed by reflection, analysis, and interpretation, is an essential practice from which all students benefit. Indeed, these days when our eyes are so often staring at a screen, one might argue that observation needs to be learned (and taught) with more intent now than ever before. Researchers who conducted a study published in 2014 found that “[a]rts experiences boost critical thinking, teaching students to take the time to be more careful and thorough in how they observe the world.” When a student draws a still life, studies and rehearses a character’s mannerisms, or sets up a shot in a film, she observes the details and then applies them to create her piece.

in a musical piece, students’ awareness of others serves them all to create a better combined outcome.

Creativity, recently highlighted in the field of brain research as enhancing well-being and social skills, is an integral part of the KPS curriculum. All students, from our Junior Pre-K girls and boys to our senior young women, have opportunities within and beyond our arts curriculum to be creative. When our youngest students sing and draw, they’re learning more than a song and doing more than making a picture: They’re learning gross-motor skills, finding (continued on next page)

Chamber Dancers Dance Ensemble Fundamentals of Dance Technique Dance: From Ballet to Modern Acting Seminar Acting Workshop Intro to Film Study Performance Company AP Art History AP Art Portfolio Architecture Drawing Filmmaking Graphic Design Media Literacy Painting Photography I & II Picture/Book Portfolio Printmaking Sculpture Studio Art Visual Art Workshop Orchestra Chamber Ensembles AP Music Theory Music Theory I & II Chamber Singers Kent Place Singers Chorale Listening to Music

The Arts: The Soul of the Kent Place Curriculum (continued) pleasure in learning, experiencing pride in accomplishment. As they proceed through the grades, they expand their knowledge of the arts and develop emotional reactions, which they express in healthy ways through music and performing and the visual arts.

Inherent to all visual and performing arts is a creative process. What happens in the silence before the first note? What happens before the lights go up? What happens on the blank canvas, screen, or page?

What happens is what happened to me in the photographer’s darkroom: An individual has the opportunity to see her ideas and vision crystallize and then develop into a creation ready to share. It doesn’t matter if a student defines herself as an artist or even if her art form has become virtually obsolete; what matters is that she experience a process that enables her to uniquely express herself. And just as the photographer’s darkroom has become something of an anomaly, so has working alone in a room of one’s own: Today’s creative process often involves collaboration and a feedback loop.

Jayla Creekmur ’19 rehearses a student-written monologue for Performance Company.

In this issue of Voyager, you’ll learn how the visual and performing arts contribute to our students’ academic and aesthetic lives. As you read about distinctive art courses and interdisciplinary learning, you’ll discover that the arts — in their myriad forms — are the soul of our curriculum, providing some of the best opportunities to collaborate, to work through a challenging process, to reflect, to explore, and to be brave and brilliant. V

Suggested Reading Gourguechon, Prudy. “Empathy Is an Essential Leadership Skill, and There Is Nothing Soft about It.” In Forbes Magazine, December 2017.

Greene, Jay P., Brian Kisida, Cari A. Bogulski, Anne Kraybill, Collin Hitt, and Daniel H. Bowen. “Arts Education Matters: We Know, We Measured It.” In Education Week, December 2, 2014.

P21 Partnership for 21st-Century Learning. http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework Sousa, David. “How the Arts Develop the Young Brain.” In The School Superintendents Association. http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle. aspx?id=7378.

Swapp, Neil. “Creativity and Academics: The Power of an Arts Education.” In Edutopia, October 2016.

“Portrait of the Artist” as a Young Girl

By Dr. Jennifer C. Galambos, Head of School A number of years ago, when I was a Middle School director, I was greeted by a seventhgrade art installation in the lobby of the building: Every student had made her own wire-sculpture self-portrait. As I studied the works, I was affected by the depth of emotion that each project displayed. I was amazed by the stories the individual artworks told about the creators’ feelings. One showed the artist screaming, another showed the sculptor singing. The one I remember in the most detail was of the student-artist with her arms close to her chest in a position of recoil. It made me think.

The impact of the arts on student learning is significant. Whether it’s through drawing, dance, theater, music, or backstage craftswomanship, the arts are an important vehicle for expression and build selfconfidence in the same ways that academic and athletic achievements often do. They

Amirah Ali ’27 works on a weaving, a project in conjunction with the social-studies curriculum in third grade.

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For all, though, dancing, singing, acting, running the light booth for a show, or painting a still life will constitute a valued part of their education. provide an opportunity for our students to gain insights into their identities. They’re an integral part of the KPS curriculum, from Kindergarten through 12th grade, enhancing each girl’s understanding of the world while fostering confidence and self-expression.

For some, involvement in the arts will become central in the Upper School and participating may make them feel most at

home. For others, classes in the arts will be peripheral. For all, though, dancing, singing, acting, running the light booth for a show, or painting a still life will constitute a valued part of their education.

In our visual-arts spaces, students create in brightly lighted studios that maximize collaboration and creativity. Soft music often plays as students put their hands, hearts, and mental energy to work in creative selfexploration. Our music studios provide terrific learning opportunities as well, and we’re turning our attention to raising the bar and modernizing our performing-arts spaces, to inspire excellence and then showcase it.

Just as it was for the seventh-graders with whom I worked many years ago, involvement in the arts is important to the development of our girls and young women. Participation in the arts provides a creative opportunity for a student to express herself, even when she’s not yet able to speak the words. V

Chamber Dancers begin each class with a Cunningham/Limon-based technical warm-up.

The Art of Dance: Communicating Across Cultures

By Walidah Justice, Director of Diversity and Inclusion At Kent Place School, diversity is not just another program; it’s one of the pillars of our mission. As we work to build an inclusive community, we encourage our girls to affirm one another as they grow into the next generation of global citizens. Our commitment is demonstrated in the multicultural backgrounds represented by our students, and we strive to incorporate programming that shines a light on the experiences of people of color, gives them their voices, and appreciates their contributions to a more culturally competent world.

Her work is a beacon for any individual to build an inclusive community through education, communication, and the power of the visual arts.

This fall — thanks to the recommendation from one of our own KPS families, the Jayaramans — our Upper School students attended a magnetic and inspirational demo/lecture presented by Sangeeta Isvaran. Through a visually stunning performance, she took our young women on a journey through her repertoire. With her every move, our girls witnessed the story of every character, whether child, teen, or adult, and of every marginalized community and began to understand the impact of Isvaran’s work as it gives voice to and empowers women across cultures.

Sangeeta Isvaran is a dancer, researcher, social worker, and advocate for using art for social change. She has worked in more than 40 countries on five continents. Beginning at age 5, in India, Isvaran studied nritta (a dance-movement technique), abbinaya, nattuvangam, kuchipudi, Carnatic music, and Kalarippayattu (a martial art). She created a unique Kaatradi technique, which is empathy-based social transformation, and for it was honored with the first and highest national accolade for young dancers, the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award. She has also received several other national and international awards and fellowships.

“I love learning about cultures that are not my own because not only is it interesting, but it also broadens my perspectives,” said

US students are mesmerized watching a performance by Bharatanatyam dancer Sangeeta Isvaran.

junior Vivienne Germain. “I loved that Ms. Isvaran showed us her work, because it reminded me to check my privilege and also to be an active citizen. I appreciated the way she unapologetically addressed women’s issues and women’s bodies in a way that’s often stigmatized or taboo in our society, because these topics are necessary to talk about and be comfortable with, and as a feminist, I have a responsibility to know how to do so.”

Isvaran’s mission is to give voice to the voiceless, which she does by working with land-mine victims, people who are differ-

ently abled, sex workers, and victims of caste and religious discrimination. Her work is a beacon for any individual to build an inclusive community through education, communication, and the power of the visual arts.

“This is the type of additional education I want from an all-girls school,” said Vivienne, “the opportunity to hear from [a diverse group of] accomplished women and the space to discuss women’s issues through an intersectional lens. I appreciate that Kent Place is leaning into that.” V

Summer Musical Theater at KPS Announcing two great performing opportunities for young actors and actresses!

BROADWAY BOOTCAMP

For the 3rd year in a row, students registered in KPS Broadway Bootcamp will rehearse and perform a full production on the stage of the Hyde and Watson Theatre!

This year’s musical will be . . . The Addams Family, School Edition! KPS Broadway Bootcamp runs from June 10 –21 and is for students (boys and girls from all schools) entering grades 6 –12. We are committed to providing a high quality, professional grade, and age-appropriate musical theater experience.

SUMMER MUSICAL THEATER CAMP

In this camp, students will act, sing, dance, as well as take part in set design and prop construction. Once they have learned their lines, music, and choreography, we add costumes and lights! Parents are invited to see the final production on the last day of camp. This year’s show will be unveiled in June . . . stay tuned! For students entering grades 3–7. Camp runs from June 24–July 3.

For more information on both programs and to register, please visit www.kentplace.org/ summercamp.

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What Is Art? The Ethics of the Arts

By Dr. Karen Rezach, Director of the Ethics Institute Years ago, I visited the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, known for its exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. I vividly remember staring at a large white canvas that had a simple black dot in the middle.

This is art? I wondered. Is someone kidding me? While these questions were going through my mind, a visitor standing next to me was extolling the beauty of the work and the brilliance of the artist who had created it. It was in that moment that I pondered these questions: “What is art?

And who makes the determination?”

The question of whether or not a piece of work can be considered “art” is at the heart of many ethical dilemmas. Take, for example, British artist Chris Ofili’s 1999 painting The Holy Virgin of Mary, which portrays Jesus’ mother, whose blue cape is parted to reveal a breast made of dried and varnished elephant dung. Or the 2017 New York Times article headlined “Should Art That Infuriates Be Removed?” which referred to Open Casket, a painting by Dana Schutz, based partly on photographs of the horrifically mutilated face of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black child who was brutally murdered by two white men in Mississippi, lying in his coffin in 1955. Should “art” that is highly offensive to certain religious, ethnic, or cultural groups be censored? Should it even be considered art? Does the intention of the artist determine whether a work is ethical or moral? Does the interpretation of the beholder make the determination?

A teacher in the Upper School raised interesting questions: “Are artists responsible for what other people do with their work?” and “Do people have a responsibility to the artist?” He was referring to the use of “Eye of the Tiger” as the theme song for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. The songwriters vehemently opposed Davis’s use of their work for her purposes on both legal and ethical grounds.

The teacher continued, “Art itself is meaningless until it becomes relevant or useful in the eyes of its beholder. However, when art’s usefulness for the beholder betrays the intention of the creator, is that a misuse of art? Does the original intent of the artist even matter anymore?” Some would argue that art should stand on its own, and we shouldn’t be judgmental about the ethical standpoint of its creator. Michael Dunn, in What is the Relationship Between Ethics and the Arts, states that art can’t be seen as separate from the person who created it because art is an expression of someone’s character.

Another major ethical issue in the arts involves the ownership of art and artifacts found as a result of an archaeological dig.

Who would be the rightful owner of the find: the archaeologist? the country, or the landowner on whose property it was found? the country that was the original owner of the artifact? Many nations have laws that

The question of whether or not a piece of work can be considered “art” is at the heart of many ethical dilemmas. govern the ethical ownership of art, whether it’s found at the bottom of the sea, in the sands of Egypt, or in the fields of Scotland.

Yet the debate rages on regarding the fair and just remuneration and use for the art and artifacts that belonged to another in a different time and place.

There are many more questions to be explored when considering ethical issues within the arts: Who owns art? Is it ethical to use unwitting subjects to make art? What responsibility does the artist have if her work evokes violence? Would it be ethical to alter an artist’s original intent?

These are some of the questions we’ll grapple with as the Ethics Institute develops programming for students and parents in the world of the arts. V

SPRING FLING 2019 Save the Date

June 10–August 30 For boys and girls ages 3–15

Visit our website www.kentplace.org/summercamp for full schedules, tuition, session descriptions, and to register.

Contact us: (908) 273-0900, ext. 297 summer@ kentplace.org

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Join us in the DRAGON LOUNGE for our biggest fundraiser of the year, Spring Fling.

Saturday, April 13 7:00 –10:30 p.m.

Center for Innovation Get your tickets to support the party of the year!

To follow Spring Fling, please snap the QR code with your smartphone or visit https://KPS2019.givesmart.com.

THEATER

A Celebration of Collaboration in the Arts

By Keri Lesnik P ’27, Interim Chair of the Theater Department; Primary, Middle, and Upper School Theater Teacher

The cast of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown performs The Book Report.

Theater is inherently a collaborative experience. Never do actors work in a vacuum.

Even in a drama, dance may complement the performances. Music, perhaps, is integral. An aspect of visual art may bring a concept to life.

Musical theater is perhaps the most collaborative of all art forms. It requires a cast to communicate a story through seamless integration of acting, song, and dance.

Kent Place students across all three divisions recently enjoyed opportunities to participate in a variety of musical-theater collaborations that brought together the Music, Theater, and Dance Departments in new and dynamic ways.

Last year’s Middle School musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown! was an exercise

in true theatrical collaboration. Faculty

in all three performing-arts departments

— theater, music, and dance — combined forces to create an entertaining and also educational experience for the students involved in the production (and for the

audience). From the first day of auditions

through the final dress rehearsal, students were challenged to find ways to express

themselves as their assigned characters.

They inhabited their roles not only by

memorizing staging and dialogue, but also

by studying musical elements in the libretto, such as lyrics, phrasing, and tempo.

Students were asked to reflect on the

aspects of movement that would best define

their character. It was particularly challenging for the Middle School students to find ways to move like the younger characters they

were portraying, so they watched Primary

School girls, took notes, and then re-created some of what they’d observed.

Musical theater is in full swing across the divisions. This year our Upper School students performed Les Misérables; the fourth-graders presented a musical version of Charlotte’s Web; and the Middle School play, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, incorporated musical and movement-based elements. In all three examples, collaboration was the key to success.

Along with these cross-departmental collaborations, students in the Primary, Middle, and Upper Schools are working together in other ways. For example, the Upper School acting students are involved in a project with our Kindergartners, adapting their original fairy tales for the stage and animating some of their most fantastical characters.

At Kent Place, within a system of divisions, departments, and grade levels, collaboration reinforces the idea that we’re one school, that we’re stronger together. V

Meet the Theater Department Keri Lesnik P ’27

Interim Theater Chair PS, MS, and US Theater Teacher Years at KPS: 10

Danni Newbury

Theater Technical Assistant Years at KPS: 15

*as of January 2019

Keri Lesnik (not pictured: Danni Newbury)

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THEATER

A Legacy of Fearlessness in KPS Arts

By Joey Massa ’13 It’s October 2017, and I’m standing, slightly nauseous, on the steps of a Catholic all-girls school. I’ve just been offered a job teaching drama and directing the school’s spring musical. (I know: a recent grad with a degree in drama and a job. I’m pretty stoked.)

But I’m wondering if I’ve made a colossal mistake, because every memory of my high school drama experience — every memory of my time with Bob Pridham — is shuffling through my brain, and I can’t comprehend that someone has given me this job.

If you’re thinking I’m incredibly dramatic, well, fair enough: I know how this must sound. But if you knew me in high school, if you knew my rather erratic path in college, you’d know theater at KPS has had a profound impact on my life. Bob Pridham exposed me to my greatest passions and loves. The gratitude I have for him is immeasurable. He will forever be one of the giants in my life, and I know there are dozens of other people who would say the same thing about him.

I first came to understand the immense power that exists in theater, writing, and performance during my time at Kent Place. But to be honest, just a couple of classes with Bob could’ve taught anyone this. It wasn’t necessarily what he said that conveyed this idea; it was the way he said it. His enthusiasm was palpable, and when you got him going on something he found exciting, it would feel as though you could bottle up his energy to save for later. He was a remarkable teacher of theater, but also of history and literature and culture. So, with the program he built, we received an education that prepared us to be members of the greater global theater community.

But we also received an education that prepared us to be better members of our own communities.

The Drama Department at Kent Place breeds dramaturgs and historians. You’re asked to make connections to people and

characters with whom you seem to have nothing in common. And in doing this, in being asked to empathize with characters from vastly different backgrounds and to live in their shoes, you learn to understand the perspectives of others. It’s quite different from reading about a character.

It’s difficult to emphasize the importance of this type of thinking in today’s sociopolitical climate.

Because of the nature of private education, KPS could easily exist as a bubble of privilege and entitlement, but the arts at the school have sharpened the recognition of the tremendous opportunities and responsibilities that come with an education here.

Bob’s legacy lives on through the program he built. His fearlessness is instilled in everyone who was lucky enough to know him. The man brought Rent to a small, allgirls school in suburban New Jersey. He brought Down at the Bottom of a Deep Dark Pit, a play by KPS alumna Chisa Hutchinson ’98, that examines racism and stereotyping and black culture. He brought Uncommon Women and Others and The Exonerated. He did 1776, a show written for a group of white men, with an entirely female cast. He chose plays that look at marginalized identities, shows that highlight a version of the human condition we would never experience, and others that illuminate aspects of the human experience we have in common but had no other way to explore. He made us feel supported and strong. His door was always open. He mentored us, he listened, he gave us his time, fully and without question. He imparted that there’s safety and belonging in the theater, and he encouraged us to bring this perspective to the theater communities we would go on to inhabit later in our lives.

As you can probably tell, I think the world of this man. The lessons he taught me about art and life and humanity make up the foundation of my identity as an artist.

Joey Massa ’13

In this moment, looking toward the prospect of writing my own curriculum and directing and producing a show with a group of young women, I ground myself in knowing that my own high school education prepared me for this challenge. I was taught by the best of the best.

So, back to those steps: Here I am, 22, almost too aware of the power that exists in this position I have the opportunity to take on. In this moment, looking toward the prospect of writing my own curriculum and directing and producing a show with a group of young women, I ground myself in knowing that my own high school education prepared me for this challenge. I was taught by the best of the best.

I walk down the steps and accept the job later that day, knowing that Bob Pridham and Kent Place will inspire me to be fearless in this next endeavor.

Joey and 2012 cast members dancing in the musical Zombie Prom.

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Joey is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied writing for performance under Erik Ehn and Lisa D’Amour, along with health and human biology. Now, as a writer/director, her work explores gender and sexuality, often by looking at family relationships and dynamics.

She is interested in themes related to motherhood and women’s positions as caretakers. She lives in New York, interning with Matador Content and working on her own creative projects. V

Behind the Scenes: Setting the Stage for Magic

By Danni Newbury, Theater Technical Assistant From sketching to painting, from blocking to plotting transitions, the technical work of theater is as creative as it is practical.

For most people, the concept of theater arts conjures up images of live performances by talented actors, dancers, or musicians (or all three) on a stage. Although much of the enjoyment of a play comes from the cast, there exists another, equally creative world — a world that extends beyond the stage, a world in which in is down, down is front; out is up, up is back; off is out, on is in; and, of course, right is left and left is right. This is the world of technical theater.

The elements of technical theater offer a rich and artistic experience for those choosing to stay behind the scenes. When you venture behind the curtain at Kent Place School, you’ll find a dedicated group of young women who have seized an opportunity to collaborate with their acting

counterparts to enhance the impact of the performance for the audience.

As the Theater Technical Assistant for the Performing Arts Department here at KPS for the past 15 years, it’s been more than an honor to work with hundreds of students as stage managers, set designers, prop masters, stagehands, scenic painters, lighting designers, sound engineers, carpenters, hairstylists, makeup artists, and wardrobe workers. Our girls and young women who work backstage are integral to every performance.

Every dance and theater production relies on a team of students working together to curate the costumes, construct the stage space to represent a specific period and place, devise lighting transitions that provide an understanding of time and mood, and consider sound elements that will add another layer of meaning — all precisely planned to deliver a coherent story.

The cast of The Penelopiad

Three Princess Fionas in the Middle School production of Shrek the Musical Jr.

For more than a decade, students have played a direct role in transforming the theater space from a school auditorium into the world of Dr. Seuss (Seussical: The Musical), into Salem, Mass., in the late 1600s (The Witchcraft of Salem Village), into a cold apartment in the East Village during the AIDS crisis of the ’80s (Rent), into a faraway swamp with an ogre (Shrek the Musical Jr.), into German-occupied Poland (Irena’s Vow), into 1800s France during the June Rebellion and into the French Revolution (Les Misérables), and into the factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Please join us in our theater space and immerse yourself in a performance, whether it’s dance, a tragedy, a comedy, or a musical. Let our students — those onstage and those backstage — transport you in an adventure you’re sure to enjoy — like magic. V

Nicole Pavese ’19 and the cast of Daisy Pulls It Off

Sami Sharp ’22 dives down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.

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THEATER

The Wonder of Theater at Kent Place

Sofia Kwon ’19 as Javert

Chorus members dancing in The Docks

Sarah McDowell ’19 as Eponine, Sofia Tartaglia ’19 as Fantine, and Jake Slade as Jean Valjean

Upper School Musical: Les Misérables

Olivia Kwon ’21 and Jack Hillebrecht perform as the Thenardiers with the company.

Annabelle Lesnik ’27 as Templeton and Maeve Wall ’27 as The Gander

The company of Charlotte’s Web

Lainey Meenan ’27 as Wilbur and Kalista Papadopoulos ’27 as Charlotte

Fourth-Grade Play: Charlotte’s Web

Gracen Hill ’27 as Wilbur along with the full cast of Charlotte’s Web

The Bucket Family learns about Willy Wonka’s contest.

Sofia Keri ’23 as Violet Beauregarde along with the sixth-grade Oompa Loompas

The storytellers set the scene.

Middle School Play: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The chocolate river is revealed!

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DANCE

Finding My Voice

By Tiana Woods ’16 Dance is a powerful tool. It tells stories using nothing but the body. If done well, its message can leave you feeling sad, disoriented, or full of life. The passion it conveys can bring a crowd fervently to their feet, leave them breathless from the beauty of it all or even cause them to rethink their beliefs. But most important, it gives a voice to those who have something to say.

My time at Kent Place, specifically with the Kent Place Dance Department, was critical to the development of my own voice. The culminating Senior Project, in which students are given the opportunity to choreograph a piece for An Evening of Dance, was one I’d been looking forward to since my freshman year. The idea of having full artistic freedom for the first time was, although exciting, quite daunting not because it would be challenging to choreograph an entire group of dancers, but because I would have to look within and ask myself tough questions to discover what

it is I wanted to say and how I wanted to express it.

I started the process second-guessing my ideas for song choice, storylines, and choreography. However, the long hours spent generating movement for my Senior Project were extremely rewarding in that my selfconfidence grew immensely. I reached a point where I felt comfortable articulating the visions I saw and making them a reality.

And nothing compared to the experience of finally performing my own work for the first time, sharing a part of myself with an audience for a few fleeting minutes.

The voice I began cultivating at Kent Place has changed over time as I have grown and solidified my place in this world, but I’ll always be grateful for the space that ignited in me a newfound passion for creating — the space in which I began to build the foundation for the choreographic work I produce today.

Tiana explores movement for a dance-composition class.

Tiana is now a junior at Columbia University double-majoring in dance and political science. Tiana aspires to use dance as a platform to encourage others to find their passions as she has found her own. In addition to pursuing dance, she is dedicated to giving back to her community. V

KPS Plays Matchmaker for a Romance with Dance

By Nancy Dalva ’68

In the winter of 1966, when I was a sophomore at Kent Place, enjoying Miss Moulding’s English class and avoiding gym with really creative excuses, I was in the audience when the curtain went up on a Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance at Hunter College Playhouse, in New York City. Out from the wings tumbled dancers in simple practice clothes — leotards and tights, augmented with colorful sweaters. The curtains were stripped from the rear of the stage, revealing an alluring mess of backstage apparatus. To the right, two men — one of them the composer John Cage — read stories.

Cage smoked a cigarette in a holder. David Vaughan, the other reader, popped a bottle of champagne. There was lively activity, a tumult of virtuosity, but unlike anything I’d seen at the ballet, the movement was the all and the everything. I fell in love.

Then I returned to Kent Place, to dumpy uniforms, study hall, and Latin.

Still, the skills I learned in Summit would serve me well in my new romance. I could write. I had a sense of the classical world. I knew enough French to be able to read it. I knew what I hated to do; I knew what I liked to do; and I knew how to avoid the former and burnish the latter.

Last winter, I went to the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, for a retrospective exhibit of the ravishing decor devised for the Cunningham company. I walked around a corner and there was a film of the dance I’d seen in 1966, now being screened on a wall.

I stopped, I watched it through, I fell in love all over again.

Nancy and LeAnn Yannelli with the 2010 Chamber Dancers outside Westbeth after a day spent at the Cunningham Studio

By then, I had met almost all of those dancers and interviewed them. Some were my friends. I had worked for Merce for the last two years of his life, documenting his studio work with his company and also filming on location. I had interviewed him many times since my first conversation with him, in 1977, among them 19 on camera for the Web series I produced and wrote, called Mondays with Merce. I’d documented the company’s final Legacy Tour and stayed on.

For decades, I had traveled to see and write about the work, sometimes when my sons were babies, flying to Paris or Brussels for a night or two. One memorable evening in 1993, in a fantastical salon at the Paris Opera, the composer David Tudor introduced me to Marcel Duchamp’s American widow, Teeny. Somehow, I had tumbled through the looking glass of the work’s surface right into it and out the other side.

Today, I’m the scholar in residence of the Merce Cunningham Trust. (Kent Place girls don’t age out of the workforce, nor are we discouraged by the new; we have a sturdy and enduring and perhaps capacious sense of capability.)

It’s a lucky day when you find something to do that you’ve spent almost all your life preparing for — and I had that luck. But if one thinks of what Louis Pasteur said about chance, you can see that my luck started with Miss Corken, Miss Swift, Miss Moulding, Miss Kaiser, and, yes, Miss Fox. What Pasteur said was this: “In fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” For that preparation, I thank Kent Place. Dux femina facti.

After graduating from KPS, in 1968, Nancy attended Cornell, Hamilton/Kirkland, Bryn Mawr, and the Yale School of Drama. She published her first article in 1973 and has been a working writer and broadcaster ever since, extending her career into video direction and production and social media in the last decade. The notions that one can do a lot of things at once and that women can do anything are a holdover from her years at Kent Place. She still hates formal exercise. V Voyager 9

DANCE

Final Destination: The Senior Project

By LeAnn Yannelli, Chair of the Dance Department; Middle and Upper School Dance Teacher Maybe it begins in first grade, when a young girl adds a few movements to the story ballet the class is choreographing. Maybe it starts in sixth grade, when she collaborates on a theme-and-variation study. Or perhaps it happens in ninth grade, when she helps create a group Renaissance dance.

Whenever it is, it’s that wonderful moment when a student experiences the joy of movement, realizes she can express herself through dance, and a light sparks infinite possibilities for the young choreographer.

At Kent Place, dance students fulfill assignments in improvisation, movement exploration, and basic dance composition.

They study Pilates, ballet, jazz, and modern dance to strengthen their body — their instrument — and develop and expand their movement vocabulary. They also perform numerous times, in the studio and on the stage. All this training, experimenting, and performing leads to the final destination: the Senior Project.

Many students mention early on that they look forward to choreographing their own work in their senior year, and later that they’ve been thinking about music choices and ideas since they were freshmen.

Following her work, a former student wrote this in her process evaluation: “This project was one of the most difficult endeavors I undertook at Kent Place. I knew as a freshman in Dance Ensemble that I wanted to choreograph . . . the possibility of this project was actually the deciding factor in my choice to take Chamber Dancers over Chamber Singers. I knew this was my one opportunity to perform something that

Ephemeral, choreographed by Chamber Dancer Anna DeLuca ’18

was wholly self-generated, my one purely creative outlet in the performing arts. So I knew when the time came to actually begin the process . . . I was already too emotionally committed to the idea to chicken out.”

After three and a half years of dancing in repertory pieces and student works and of choreographing dance studies, seniors have the option to choreograph a piece for An Evening of Dance. If they take up the challenge, they must write a proposal that incorporates their overall vision; the style of movement; the compositional form; and ideas for costumes, props, and lighting.

In preparation, they read The Process of Creating a Dance, by Myron Howard Nadel; Introduction to Dance Composition, by Elizabeth Sherbon; and Joshua Legg’s Rehearsal Management 101. The dancers discuss music choices and look at excerpts from past Senior Projects. By this time, Kent Place dance students have already seen at least 16 dance companies at the Fall for Dance Festival, on the annual field trip to New York City. They say the performances inspire them as both dancers and choreographers.

The choreographer begins her journey with a notebook, a pencil, and an iPod. She

Whenever it is, it’s that wonderful moment when a student experiences the joy of movement, realizes she can express herself through dance, and a light sparks infinite possibilities for the young choreographer. arrives at the studio, with them in hand, to generate movement that she will record and then teach to her dancers. She may draw on her other curricular interests for inspiration: The Scarlet Letter (literature), for example; geometric patterns and metric divisions of rhythm (math); and, from the visual and other performing arts, a painting (her own or one by a classmate), a poem, or, for the score, her own music.

The first draft is shown to her classmates for feedback and support; after several revisions, she is ready to costume and light the work.

The performances come and go, and then it’s time to write a process evaluation.

The student I quoted earlier finished hers with this: “My overall retrospective feeling about this piece has been that although the project was not precisely what I had anticipated, the process and the product were both gratifying beyond my expectations.”

Another student wrote, “For the first time in my life, I was given the chance to create a piece that expresses what I feel and what dance really means to me.”

I Lived, a duet co-choreographed by Chamber Dancer Alexa Kolakoski ’18 and Dance Ensemble member Emily Pellicano ’18

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And with that, our choreographers have arrived at their final destination. V

In the Primary School, Dance Means Moving — and Drawing

By Jennifer Barbosa, Primary School Dance Teacher

Chelsea Chen ’28, Willow Gall ’28, Skylar McClean ’28, and Lexa Naumovich ’28 interpret a classmate’s drawing during their second-grade dance project.

I like to think of dancers as moving visual artists. Just as does a visual artist, a dancer may be telling a story. Or, like Picasso, maybe a dancer is simply exploring how different shapes fit together. Visual art and dance go hand in hand, and we combine these disciplines in the second grade.

Our final unit of the year involves the girls using their artistic eye to draw. The unit was inspired by Remy Charlip — an artist, a choreographer, a teacher, and a founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, for which he also designed sets and costumes.

Charlip created a unique form of choreography he called “Air Mail Dances.” He began them when he forgot to choreograph a dance for a friend. Instead, he sent her a series of postcards on which he’d drawn pictures of the body in different positions.

He told her she could link the pictures in whatever order she chose. After this initial choreography, Charlip said, “I started to do these figures on a page and then give them to dancers, to soloists and groups of dancers, and have them figure out how to get from one position to another, so they worked on the transitions and they thereby made the dance — it’s their dance and it’s also my dance.”

Fifth-grade composition A Spinning Duet with Eden Ekong-Reid ’25 and Aarah Ali ’25 Fifth-grade composition, Lost Away with Ava Burroughs ’25 and Tina Kintiroglou ’25

In keeping with this philosophy, the second-graders take full ownership of their choreography. We discuss both representational and abstract art using some of Charlip’s original pictures. Through these explorations, we discover how people might see a figure differently. After examining Charlip’s pictures, each girl draws a representational figure or an abstract figure. The girls then split into groups to interpret their friends’ pictures into shapes while also figuring out the transitions that connect the pictures.

Although Remy Charlip encouraged the recipients of his “air mail” to sequence the pictures however they wanted, our version has a set order. This is to show how differently, or similarly, the girls view them. Parents are then invited to a dance performance, during which the pictures are projected behind the girls so the audience can see what each interpreted.

This year, we decided to showcase their work in the Primary Dance Concert. The drawings will be projected onto the big screen while students dance their illustrations.

In the fifth-grade, too, we augment dance with visual art. For the past two years, I’ve asked my fifth-graders, “What feeling are you trying to convey through your dance?

Does it have a theme? Where does it take place?” From their answers, I try to find a backdrop that works with their choreography and project it behind them. This year, new to our Afternoon of Dance, fifth-graders will be drawing their very own backdrops based on the answers to those questions. It’s another way for them to be in command of their piece, another way for them to tell their story.

These projects and performances will use visual art to extend and enhance students’ work, and it’s very exciting for the girls to be able to demonstrate their visions to our community. V

Meet the Dance Department LeAnn Yannelli

Chair of the Dance Department US and MS Dance Teacher Years at KPS: 35

Jenny Barbosa

PS Dance Teacher Years at KPS: 21

Samuel Robbins Adjunct Faculty Years at KPS: 2

Jenny Barbosa and LeAnn Yannelli (not pictured: Samuel Robbins)

*as of January 2019

Voyager 11

DANCE

A Makerspace for Dance

By LeAnn Yannelli, Chair of the Dance Department; Middle and Upper School Dance Teacher In the tradition of postmodern-dance choreographers from the 1960s and ’70s, last December the students in Dance Ensemble commandeered the brand-new Center for Innovation and choreographed their own site-specific works, which were performed in April and May. Our students, like the postmodernists improvised in the center, incorporated pedestrian movements, challenged the status quo of traditional performance venues, and brought their work to the greater KPS community.

Choreographers have created site-specific dances in a multitude of alternative spaces, such as Grand Central Station, arboretums, rooftops, museums, the London Eye, the Millennium Bridge, and the Chelsea High Line — and now, the Center for Innovation!

When the CFI opened, a little more than a year ago, I was committed to bringing the KPS dancers into the new building and bridging the gap between it and the greater school community. The architects didn’t have dance in mind when the CFI was designed, but with a name like Center for Innovation, I couldn’t resist challenging the

name and its spaces and making it work for our student choreographers.

In early December, in the dance studio, the students watched videos of site-specific works by Stephan Koplowitz, Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch, and Mark Dendy; discussed the pieces; and then bundled up and headed over to the CFI. Divided into three trios and a duet, they ventured inside and outside the building with the aim of finding a space they might want to work with/in. The courtyard and the roof over the Makerspace were appealing, but they weren’t conducive to working in winter. The girls looked some more.

They ended up choosing the entrance lobby, the stairway, the art gallery, and the open space with “highboy tables.” The levels of the stairway, the line of the railing, the sound the wooden bench makes in the lobby, the dimensions of the windows, the art hanging on the walls of the art gallery, the space above and below the “highboy tables” — all inspired the dancers. They were more than ready to react and respond to the spaces.

Growing Up Dancing

Growing up as a dancer has made me the person I am today. Dancing is all about self-discovery, and I’ve discovered a lot about myself since I started dancing as a three-year-old. Along the way, I learned many valuable life lessons right here in Kent Place School’s Dance Program.

It emphasizes the intellectual and spiritual growth of every girl through a commitment to offer her a mode of selfexpression, performance, and creativity.

As early as Kindergarten, Kent Place girls are taught that dance is an art form. Our first exposure to it was to build awareness of creative movement by developing motor skills that would get us ready for the upper grades. The rest of Primary School introduced us to fairy-tale ballets,

12 Voyager

As rehearsals progressed, teachers, staff, and students became more expectant of the dancers moving around them as they walked from the lobby to their classrooms or offices. Many wonderful encounters, both verbal and physical, took place during the creation of the dances.

This is bringing dance to the people and breathing life into a space. (Not to mention the pleasure of music playing when the dancers were present.)

The dancers performed their pieces during the AP Portfolio Art Gallery Opening, which precedes An Evening of Dance, and for Reunion Weekend audiences. Many in the KPS community said they missed the dancers after the rehearsals and performances were over and hoped they’d return for another season of site-specific works.

And they will. V

By Isabella Racioppi ’19

jazz technique, partnered choreography, solos, and even improvisation. All the while, we gained performance experience. From the Tap Ensemble in second grade, to the Dance Ensemble’s “Thriller” in fourth, to self-choreographed partner dances in fifth, Primary School was filled with opportunities to showcase our newly learned dance styles.

A moment from Isabella’s solo study in 2016.

Dance Ensemble dancers Emma Kelley ’18, Angela Maliakal ’18, and Janeyce McCray ’20 perform their site-specific trio in the lobby of the CFI.

One of my favorite memories is dance class with our parents. I’ll never forget how shocking it was to watch some of our dads imitate our warm-up stretches . . . only Ms. Barbosa could have made that happen!

By the time we finished Primary School, those of us who danced were well on our way to understanding that dance is about so much more than movement.

Mrs. Yannelli taught us that the body is an instrument of human expression.

In seventh and eighth grades, Kent Place girls are invited to audition for Dance Makers, an advanced Middle School elective. Some of my favorite recitals were the dance studies we performed at An Evening of Dance, as that was the first year the Dance Makers were able to perform with the Upper School dancers.

In Upper School, the study of dance takes on a more comprehensive overview as Kent Place girls have choices

from a variety of perspectives of dance.

Appreciation of dance is fostered through readings, film studies, guest visits, and field trips. Those who would like to perform may audition for the intermediate-level Dance Ensemble and the advanced-level Chamber Dancers. The highlight for seniors — and one I’m very much looking forward to this year — is the self-choreographed Senior Project, which is performed at An Evening of Dance.

Dance is hard work, and as we all know, hard work pays off. Perfecting movement takes time, discipline, and dedication.

There are ankle injuries, knee problems, and backaches. But the benefits far outweigh the aches and pains. Through dance, I’ve learned about dedication and responsibility. I’ve cultivated an enduring commitment to my craft. Dance has taught me to be resilient because there’s always room for improvement. Dance has given me fortitude because performance is a vulnerable art form — a dancer’s emotions are on full display for all to see.

Dance is not just about movement; it’s also about being expressive. It provides an outlet that I can’t adequately describe with words.

I suppose it’s different for every dancer, but in my case, I’m thankful to be a dancer and am grateful to have taken part in the dance program at Kent Place. V

VISUAL ARTS

The Well Within

By Melissa Wood, Primary School Visual Arts Teacher

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

—Socrates

Socrates’ metaphor is an apt one. Of course, a good amount of classroom time is spent presenting and acquiring information, but education is more than that: We want our students to be inspired by what they learn — and to be eternally curious and creative.

A comprehensive education must incorporate several types of knowledge. Some are explored in all classrooms; one is unique to the arts.

To start this process, we could teach a choreographic structure, then encourage the student to experiment with movement within that structure. The extension of the lesson would ask the student to create her

Eighth-graders Emily Shewchuk, Astrid Burns, and Sana Jaffrey discuss a portrait of L.L. Cool J painted by Kehinde Wiley.

own choreographic structure — to stir up the imparted knowledge and stimulate further exploration. This type of assignment, and its extensions, can be found in any discipline.

What is unique to arts classes is another mode of knowing: one that relies on our belief that a student is a vessel already full.

Creative pursuits require an artist to draw from her own experiences, emotions, and perspectives. Without the personal, expressive nature of the process, art-making of any kind becomes a matter of skills without individuality. Self-expression is at the heart of artistic endeavors.

A scene study in theater class may center on expressing emotion. The director can give suggestions, but a student must ultimately find within herself how that emotion is best expressed, through body shape, movement, vocal intonation, pace, and facial expression.

The student must draw on her rich base of life experiences, often on a visceral level, to create a convincing and moving performance.

the visual arts, the progression of drawing skills links seamlessly to each perfectly filled vessel. In the earliest stages of drawing, imagery is the result of movement — an encyclopedia of motions begun in utero. As experience builds, imagery starts to include stories and ideas. By the time a child is 6 or 7, her well of inner material is overflowing.

As students continue to progress through the visual arts, they repeatedly return to these fountains of experience to invent original, authentic expressions of who they are. Each foray into artistic expression draws from explicit knowledge presented by the teacher and from the student herself as an essential source for material.

Learning in the arts means, in part, the acquisition of a wealth of explicit knowledge.

Each creative problem-solving exercise helps to kindle the proverbial flame.

The vessel of the mind begins to fill as soon as the brain has formed. That’s why even our youngest arts students already have access to a wellspring of self-expression. In

Beyond that lies a third essential element: the ability of the student to gather knowledge from within — knowledge of self — and apply it in the unique expression of her ideas. Only by combining all three aspects of knowledge do we reach the ultimate goal of any artistic pursuit: the creation of a compelling human expression of ideas that has the power to touch the soul. V

Senior Lexi Hobbs creates work for her AP concentration.

Second-graders Elin Segal and Alex Marazza explore quilt-block design with lines of symmetry.

Meet the Visual Arts Department Carey Gates

Visual Arts Chair US Visual Arts Teacher Years at KPS: 5

Marie Micchelli

MS Visual Arts Teacher Years at KPS: 4

Ken Weathersby

US Visual Arts Teacher Years at KPS: 17

Melissa Wood

PS Visual Arts Teacher Years at KPS: 31 *as of January 2019

Ken Weathersby, Melissa Wood, Marie Micchelli, and Carey Gates

Voyager 13

VISUAL ARTS

The Arts: Uniquely Positioned for Collaboration

By Carey Gates, Chair of the Visual Arts Department; Upper School Visual Arts Teacher In October 2017, the entire Class of 2021 went on a field trip to the Storm King Art Center, in New Windsor, N.Y. — famous for its outdoor contemporary sculpture.

The ninth-graders took in the expanse of the park on a voyage of sisterhood and discovery. Over the course of the day, they enjoyed guided tours and learned about the creation of this repository of art.

What began as an arts trip developed legs as other ninth-grade teachers used it as an opportunity to link their fields for cross-disciplinary learning.

A few weeks before the trip, the girls participated in workshops during which each student was invited to connect with an artwork. After the trip, all of the ninthgrade arts classes aligned their projects to tie in to their experience. In the Visual Arts Workshop, for example, students chose an image of a sculpture as the subject of a painting. In Dance: From Ballet to Modern, students choreographed movements based on the artworks.

Those ninth-graders in Chamber Dancers co-choreographed a piece, inspired by the sculpture park, for An Evening of Dance. Their bodies took on the shapes of the sculptures, and they manipulated the light, color, and sound of the performance to reflect and resonate with what they’d seen.

“The experience of viewing the sculptures at Storm King was unique,” said one of the Chamber Dancers.

“It wasn’t like a typical museum or a gallery, where you walk around inside and see sculptures and paintings on a wall. The art was outside and all around you,” said another.

What began as an arts trip developed legs as other ninth-grade teachers used it as an

Chamber Dancer Madeline Estey ’21 and classmates interact with a Mark di Suvero sculpture at Storm King Art Center.

opportunity to link their fields for crossdisciplinary learning.

There’s a history of a ninth-grade collaborative arts trip going back decades, introduced by LeAnn Yannelli (chair of Dance) and Bob Pridham (who was chair of Theater Department for more than 40 years). The goals of the field trips are to knit together students in their experience of the arts and to be a springboard for discussions about how the arts are connected, often overlap with one another, and are influenced by other disciplines.

One of the goals we strive for at Kent Place School is to promote collaboration among subjects. We want our students to realize that every aspect of our curriculum is a facet of understanding the core material, global differences and similarities, and empathic leadership. This particular trip set

the stage for others to engage a variety of disciplines: an international trip centering on service and engineering, for example, perhaps a trip to a New York City museum that blends history, world language, and art.

The arts are uniquely positioned for the support of this ideal. Music, dance, visual arts, and theater stand on their own and develop and progress independently, but they also interact with one another. Each carries with it a point of view and as such dovetails with just about every subject or topic, whether in school or out in the world.

The arts reflect history and culture, give visual and auditory form to literature, and express principles of math and science in creative ways.

A student with an appreciation of arts both as author and as consumer is well on her way to a lifetime of learning — and of awe. V

Ninth-Grade Chamber Dancers performing Sculpture Study at An Evening of Dance.

14 Voyager

On Art and Language

By Katherine H. Gagnon ’07 I attended Kent Place from sixth grade on, and when I think about my time there, especially regarding the Art Department, I’d say that art class was where I felt as if I could say and do what I wanted within a structured environment.

Junior and senior year, I took Mr. Weathersby’s AP Studio Art class. I remember going on a field trip to the Dia:Beacon, a museum in Beacon, New York. Built in a former Nabisco box printing factory, Dia:Beacon is home to vast installations.

I remember seeing a range of massive and questioning sculptures and installations. It seemed like for the first time I was being asked questions and my answers would be taken at face value. There were no trick questions. We were being asked what we thought of the work. How did it affect us?

What did we think was going through the artist’s mind during the act of creation?

At Dia, we saw conceptual art, postmodern art, land art, minimalism, and installation art. Ideas soared from floor to ceiling in creations by Sol Lewitt, Robert Smithson, and Michael Heizer.

The works of art and responding to them generated a new way to think. I liked that critical thinking asked me to come to my own conclusions about a piece. This approach to open-minded learning and observation, through an art-historical

lens, exposed me to art criticism for the first time. The validation of giving voice to a thought, fleshing out my argument, and pushing the whole thing farther with additional observations, questions, and perspectives — this was my entry into critical thinking and analysis.

Fostered by a strong program in English literature, where I honed my writing skills, my voice had a place and an audience in the art program and its teachers.

The best way to challenge myself creatively was when I could step away from the “Will I get a good grade if I say x, y, z?” In expressing myself about art, there was no assignment or theory to fall back on. It was all new, and it felt like scratching the surface of something much greater.

In college, I searched for my own visual language in my work (painting) and figured out ways to articulate how I respond and interact with art.

As an adult, art is my way into having a voice. Writing about and discussing art — whether it’s curating a show or speaking with a collector — is my world. Painting is my voice and expression.

In art as in life, there aren’t any easy answers. I had to come up with them on my own, and I thank the art program for the introduction.

Katherine in front of her painting titled Surrender, 2017 oil on canvas, 5’ x 5’.

Fostered by a strong program in English literature, where I honed my writing skills, my voice had a place and an audience in the art program and its teachers.

Katherine is the gallery director at Mark Borghi Fine Art, in New York City. She appraises, curates, and sells postwar and contemporary art in the primary and secondary markets. She holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting and a BA in art history and studio art from Colby College. Katherine maintains an art studio in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. V

Art History: An Appreciation

By Ruthie Laurence ’18 was really little and he always challenged me to notice things that weren’t obvious, to dig deep into why a painting was a certain color or how the artist carved the stone. I quickly found that simply looking at art was only half the fun.

I knew since I was a freshman that I wanted to take art history during my time at Kent Place.

I correctly suspected that it would be my favorite class. During my senior year, I lived and breathed art. I looked forward to B block, when I could sit for an hour and type notes ferociously as I listened to Mr. Gates lecture.

Ruthie Laurence ’18

The summer before senior year, I spent six

weeks working in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was the best summer of my life.

I worked in the education department and got to evaluate tours of the museum from

the perspective of visitors and employees.

Six hours a day, I’d be going through rooms, learning about artworks from all cultures, places, and periods. I’ve always loved art

museums. I visited them with my dad when I

and times and everything was contextualized. Art is action and reaction, and we were reminded of this constantly. I loved trying to challenge myself in comparison essays. I was really proud of one in which I used two paintings to talk about depictions of women in the 16th and 20th centuries, respectively. I made note cards for each work on the exam and carried them with me everywhere.

At home, I’d catch my dad sitting and flipping through my textbook, which was perpetually open on the dining room table.

Sometimes we’d sit and talk for hours about class that day. I loved trying to repeat every little detail that I could remember about a piece. It was difficult because Mr. Gates is very thorough.

When I was looking at colleges, a priority was the strength of a school’s art history program. It’s one of the reasons I chose Williams. I was seriously considering an art history major, and Williams has three art museums within throwing distance of campus. This semester, I’m taking an intro course in Asian art and next semester I plan on taking a survey course. I can’t wait to see what that has in store for me, but for the moment, I look fondly on all I learned at Kent Place.

The art history course at Kent Place teaches students that art doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

That was my favorite part of the course.

We compared works of different cultures

Ruthie attended Kent Place for seven years.

She is now a freshman at Williams College pursuing an art history major and on the premed track. V Voyager 15

VISUAL ARTS

From Grand Concepts to Tiny Spaces: Creativity in Three Dimensions

By Ken Weathersby, Upper School Visual Arts Teacher Our Visual Arts Department embraces an ever-expanding range of technology for use in design thinking, problem-solving, and exploring creativity. Our students tackle their projects from many angles, and learn to fully express their artistry by moving fluidly among digital, handmade, and conceptual approaches.

Working digitally — in design, printing, editing photos, and making movies — is the latest cutting-edge technology we use in our program. Software such as SketchUp, Photoshop, and iMovie are among the

digital tools we use every day, along with the time-honored ones: charcoal, paint, and canvas, for example.

Students create three-dimensional designs with SketchUp, which enables them to rotate and zoom in to work in a variety of scales, from the overview to fine detail. Girls in the 11th grade use it (in combination with different kinds of hand building and traditional sketching) to develop work for the Portfolio Art assignment called Living Cube.

This architectural project is about creating a livable space, a house or apartment, within an area that is radically small (six feet by six feet by six feet). It calls for maximum creativity to conceive an inhabitable place on such a minimal scale. Using SketchUp, girls can build and instantly modify a 3D rendering of their cube to scale and in proportion as they think through and answer the questions that arise from the challenge: What furnishings and utilities do I actually need, and how can they be most efficient?

For her senior portfolio, Gabrielle Narcisse ’19 uses digital media as both source and subject. Her freely brushed portrait and figure paintings comment on social media using familiar tropes of the screen, but rendered in a handmade, painterly mode.

She completed more than a dozen unique, fully developed plans for architectural projects in this vein. Her 3D digital renderings demonstrated thoughtful structural considerations and showed interior and exterior aesthetic design features in detail. This student was also one of the first in Upper School art to put our 3D printer to work, printing tangible objects from her designs.

Photoshop has been an important tool in our digital photography classes for years; from Photo I onward, students use its substantial editing power for almost every photography project. Recently, though, it has proved to be an excellent medium for teaching color theory.

Students use technology to swiftly try various solutions and consider the results.

AP Portfolio Art students get a rigorous college-level experience of Bauhaus-style color concepts as they experiment with the seven specific types of color contrast. Unlike the way this was conventionally taught in a university setting, via a laborious, technically difficult process with paper and paint, Photoshop is an accurate and rapid medium for understanding how color perception actually works. With it, our girls can quickly test many variations and find creative and correct solutions to color problems.

One student was inspired to delve deeper into Living Cube and created a yearlong AP Portfolio

We’re always adding approaches and modifying existing ones, with the result that our students have access to the full palette of creative mediums and ideas, from the traditional to the most modern. V

What materials, colors, and textures will improve my design?

When every inch counts, how can I most creatively organize space?

Emma Fischer ’19 and her Living Cube

Art project that was a sustained study of tiny-house design. Her digitally created constructions grew from the original sixby-six-by-six assignment to spaces of a few hundred square feet, but still impressively disciplined about being sustainable within such a small footprint.

Why have a professional gallery at Kent Place?

The Kent Place Gallery: A Q&A with Gallery Director Ken Weathersby

We have the good fortune to be close enough to New York City that, with research and legwork, I can bring contemporary art and artists of the highest quality here to campus. So the gallery becomes a cultural resource for the students, who get exposure to this very rich and thoughtful material. The exposure comes both acutely (especially for students in my art classes, who meet and interact with the artists directly and who are asked to think and talk about the work formally) and through more casual contact. The gallery is a place any student, faculty, or anyone else on campus can enter at any time and look and enjoy, or just hang out for a bit.

What do you look for when you select exhibitions?

As an artist as well as a teacher and a curator, I’m constantly watching what’s going on in art, and I’m also in contact, through fellow artists who teach in college and graduate art programs, with artists just starting out. That’s important because if their work is really good, they often have too many other opportunities coming their way soon, so I need to show them here before that happens. I just look for the best, most interesting contem-

16 Voyager

Identity: Genetics, Portraits, and Race

By Marie Micchelli, Middle School Visual Arts Teacher At KPS, cross-curricular themes broaden students’ learning, and we believe that art has a place in a range of academic classes.

This concept was front and center for me when I attended a workshop at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The topic was identity and connecting portraits with genetics. The ideas were illuminated in artist Angélica Dass’s TedTalk, titled “The Beauty of Human Skin in Every Color.” Dass, a photographer, put together the Humanae project, which is her pursuit to capture humanity’s true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black, and yellow associated with race.

While I was listening, I realized that my colleagues would be fascinated by the workshop’s theme and what Dass has to say.

As soon as possible, I met with Ms. Hall, the eighth-grade science teacher, and our eighthgrade history teacher, Ms. Baker — and our collaboration began. Each of us can see clearly that identity plays a role in our subject matter, and we knew immediately that we could incorporate the world of identity into our disciplines. We became inspired by the Humanae project and the idea of embracing your true color. Terms and vocabulary from art, history, and science would help the girls as they tackled our identity lessons.

you or the person — an identity. Our identity is more than just what we look like on the outside.

Art students will dig deep into looking at all types of portraits, thinking about what they reveal but also about what they conceal.

Students will be asked what a particular artist’s view of identity might be, and if the subject of an artwork influences their own ideas about identity. After the exploration of identity and portraiture, each girl will create a self-portrait.

Megan Szot and Amanda DiTomasso hold up their finished portraits.

A finished portrait by eighth-grade artist Serena Zheng.

In the history and science classes, Ms. Baker and Ms. Hall, respectively, will use some of the same overarching questions. History class takes on the idea of social identity, race as a social construct, and the culture of identity. Science class dives into genetics, traits, characteristics, and DNA. In both subjects, students will learn about social construct and pseudoscience in reference to race.

Nora Lee paints finishing touches on her work.

A portrait is not simply a face or even a person; rather, it’s anything that represents

As we weave identity into our classes, we hope to encourage our students to be global thinkers. We look forward to witnessing the transformation from what they used to think to what they now think about identity, genetics, portraits, and race. Our hope is that Angélica Dass’s Humanae project resonates with them, and that they will embrace “the beauty of human skin in every color.” V

Nupur Ballal meticulously sizes and cuts the pieces for her image.

porary art. Because Kent Place is a girls school, it’s great that the artists who fit the criteria are often women. I’m on the lookout for work that represents diverse perspectives and fresh ways of seeing.

the gallery curriculum, each fall I’ve invited distinguished artists of high stature as guests to speak to the entire Upper School.

Among those artists have been Katherine Bradford, John O’Connor, and Linda Francis.

What do you think makes the gallery unique?

What types of KPS student artwork is displayed?

Over the course of the year, we’ll be asking them such questions as “What’s the relationship between your identity and your environment?” “How do art/history/science play a role in constructing identity?” and “Does your genetic identity influence your perspective on the world?”

In the art room, my jumping-off point was this question: “What is a portrait?”

In my experience, the Kent Place Gallery is unique in its emphasis on top-level, sophisticated contemporary art. Art galleries at high schools generally don’t seem to try to do this, or perhaps they don’t have the resources or expertise to do it. Curatorial decisions here are never made to pander to an imagined audience. I think our community deserves a gallery program that’s ambitious, searching, and really connected to what’s vital in art. Gallery artists always visit and meet with art students. For the last several years, as an additional part of

Student shows at Kent Place are wonderful and I enjoy them just as much as the professional artists who come in. The latter half of the school year is devoted mostly to student work. One of the staples of the program of student work is the AP Portfolio Artist exhibition in the spring. That’s a big culmination for me, because it displays the best of the personal directions taken by seniors who have been working with me in portfolio classes for two years. It’s the pinnacle of a Kent Place student’s art-making career, for those who take that path. We

also do a theme-based exhibition each year, Caption which contains work from Primary School up through Middle and Upper School, all together in a single show. It’s fantastic to see the work of students of all ages together in the space, tackling a single subject, image, or method. In addition, each division rotates through and does a division show every year, and the Kindergarten has its own slot at the very end of the school year, when girls put up beautiful, astounding pieces they’ve made.

Check out the work of those who have recently exhibited at the Kent Place Gallery Christina de Miguel, Polina Barskaya, Melissa Staiger, Jason Stopa, Eleanna Anagnos, E. E. Ikeler, Mark Dagley, Max Warsh, Becky Brown, Lauren Portada, Heidi Lau, and Devin Powers V www.kentplace.org/gallery

Voyager 17

MUSIC

Creating Harmony

By Anna Lenti, Middle and Upper School Music Teacher Singing is an integral part of our lives, from the Alma Mater at opening convocation to the Upper School tradition of Step Sing and from Middle School talent shows to the all– Primary School song at the Grandparents’ Day Assembly. Singing is a constant presence, and it’s a privilege to teach music in a place where this is the case.

I have many warm memories of making music in the Kent Place community. Perhaps unexpectedly, most of them arose outside my classroom.

Last winter, before the start of STAR, I gathered the members of the Kent Place Singers for one final pep talk. As we stood amid the hustle and bustle of other students tuning instruments, fixing turtlenecks, and finding homes for boots and backpacks, I asked them to join hands and sing their favorite song together. Like the snow falling on the ground outside, the music soared over the landscape and then settled like a beautiful blanket over everything around us.

Chamber Singers Elynn Chang ’19, Naomi Gordon ’20, Sofia Kwon ’19, Quincy Clew ’20, and Olivia Okunak ’19 learn new music for an upcoming performance.

I treasure this moment because of everything it represents. These students, who

Music is one of the few forces that can transform us from the outside in. When you

came from diverse backgrounds and had various levels of experience, united to make music. In a world that often struggles to find agreement, a choir’s sole responsibility is to agree on one thing: the creation of something beautiful. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever your story may be, you can bring to the group the best of yourself as we all pursue this common goal.

The Kent Place Singers perform at STAR 2018.

hear a particular piece, it can change the course of your entire day. The years of high school and middle school can be difficult for some adolescents; it’s always been my hope that in my classroom, as we work together on music that ranges widely in emotion and content, I’m cultivating not only beautiful singing but also a sense of community.

If one person in our choir is missing from a performance or a rehearsal, the dynamic of the group changes, which helps our students understand teamwork and responsibility. If your neighbor is feeling under the weather, you may need to sing a little more robustly to make up the difference, which teaches us to help each other when someone is in need. If you believe you have the best voice and you sing so loud you drown out everyone else, we’re going to work on the blend of our sound and unifying our voices, which teaches humility and sacrifice for the good of the group.

Music permeates the Kent Place community because its essential qualities match the spirit of our school’s mission and character.

The collaboration, unity, and genuine care for one another that our students embody every day are part of the school’s culture of giving, creating, and communal living. I treasure the opportunity to continue this great tradition of music in our community. V

Music is one of the few forces that can transform us from the outside in. When you hear a particular piece, it can change the course of your entire day.

The Middle School Honor Choir performs Andrea Ramsey’s “Letter From A Girl To The World” during Dr. Galambos’s Investiture celebration last year.

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Cozy Cub Concerts for Early Musicmakers

By Dr. Lori Brown Mirabal, Primary School Music Teacher Just as language skills are nurtured from infancy, many educators believe it’s never too early to start developing musical skills. With this in mind, I created the Cozy Cub Concerts to introduce our youngest students to instrument families within an orchestra.

Early in the fall semester, Junior Pre-Kindergarten students learn about communities. Accordingly, these bite-sized performances were designed to align with this aspect of the curriculum. Because at the same time the children are also learning about bears, “Cozy Cub” emerged as an appropriate name for the concerts.

What happens at a Cozy Cub Concert? On concert day, as students enter the Primary School music room, they receive tiny bears to “cozy up to” throughout the performance. Each of the five concerts introduces one of the four families — strings, winds,

Sophia Fanelle ’19 introduces the cello to tiny concert goers.

brass, and percussion — in an orchestral community. Professional musicians, mostly from the KPS music faculty, play ageappropriate songs within a thematic context. During their visit, students hear how an instrument sounds, learn about the instrument from the musicians, and may touch and explore the instrument.

The overall experience is enhanced with storytelling, singing, and other activities that support the JPK curriculum.

For example, last year the string concert featured an original story about a family of string-playing bears: Papa played the bass, Mama played the cello, and baby bear played the violin. As each liked playing a different musical style, they had to find a way to cooperate in order to play together in a holiday performance.

Music is a language that kindles the human spirit, sharpens the mind, fuels the body, and fills the heart.

—Eric Jensen, author of Music with the Brain in Mind

instruments such as the ocean drum, the djembe, and the kalimba she took JPK on an imaginative journey around the world.

Another highlight was a visit by an African percussionist Ahmondylla Best. Using

Cozy Cub Concerts begin in October with an instrumental “petting zoo” and are scheduled through May. V

Cozying up to the cello at the instrument petting zoo.

Grace Morris ’20 helps Olivia Denis ’33 to hold a violin for the first time.

Meet the Music Department

Lori Mirabal, Terrance Thornhill, and Ruthanna Graves McQueen

Edel Thomas

Chair of the Music Department US and MS Music Teacher Years at KPS: 26

Anna Lenti

US and MS Music Teacher Years at KPS: 3

*as of January 2019

Terrance Thornhill, Nick Scheuble, Huei-Mei Jhou, Carolyn Baldacchini, Edel Thomas, Anna Lenti, Erin Paul, Sarah Hewitt-Roth, and Bryan Rudderow (not pictured: Adrienne Ostrander and David Davis)

Ruthanna Graves McQueen PS Music Teacher Years at KPS: In Year 1

Lori Mirabal

PS Music Teacher Years at KPS: 8

Terrence Thornhill

Instrumental Music Years at KPS: In Year 1

Adjunct Music Faculty

Carolyn Baldacchini: Upper Strings Sarah Hewitt-Roth: Lower Strings Huei-Mei Jhou: Flute Bryan Rudderow: Reeds Erin Paul: Brass Nick Scheuble: Percussion Adrienne Ostrander: Percussion David Davis: Piano

Voyager 19

MUSIC

Our Campus Comes Alive with Music The STAR

Chamber Singers perform at STAR.

Alumnae join Upper School musicians and singers for “O Holy Night.”

Catie Gilhuley ’20

Kathryn Tucker ’22

The Middle School Winter Concert

MS Reed Ensemble with Mr. Rudderow

MS Flute Ensemble

MS GirlChoir

The Primary Winter Concert

PS Ensemble

Kindergartners sing with bells at the PS Winter Concert.

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Sleigh bells ring as the Pre-Kindergarten enters the Field House.

Of Melodies and Multilingualism: Feeling at Home Through Music

By Juliette Norrmén-Smith ’13 When I got off the bus after a three-hour ride from Barcelona, my only company consisted of a tired suitcase and a profound sense of unstructured loneliness. I had arrived in Andorra, a tiny microstate (population: 77,000) tucked away in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

Unlike college, my new home wouldn’t have a club fair, freshman orientation trips, or even a campus. It wouldn’t be one of those spaces specifically designed for forging friendships that I’d grown accustomed to through 20 years of educational institutions.

No, no. The mode of my imminent intercultural integration (thank you, Mr. Fulbright) was entirely in my hands. After a few days of fumbled conversations in Catalan and Spanish, I learned that my French fluency would be much less helpful than I’d hoped.

How will I make friends with my students and the Andorrans without a common language?

What would I do without all the curated socializing I was used to from school?

The next ten months in my multilingual microstate would give me a clear answer to those questions. The answer was music.

I did more thinking about Kent Place and the impact of its musical education on my life in those first few weeks of my Fulbright grant than I’d ever have predicted. Music transcends linguistic barriers, so I set out to find every possible musical outlet I could. I joined my school’s choir and was quickly given the job of leading the soprano section. I started an a cappella group for my 14- to 16-year-old students using the Kent Place Treblemakers as my model. When it came to teaching parts, I wanted to call Edel Thomas to say, “Wow, your job is way harder than I thought! How do you say ‘You’re flat’ in Catalan? ¿Bajo? ¿Abajo? ¡Ajuda’m si us plau! I’m floundering!” At least words like crescendo and forte are understood in every language . . .

My musical integration was no joke. By October, I had joined five singing groups.

One was a classical choir, directed by an intimidating French madame who asked me to record myself singing all the alto and soprano parts to help the women of the choir learn them by ear. I also joined a rock band. During our first gig (at the Hard Rock Café Andorra, of all places), I channeled the only other rocker experience I’d had: performing as Mimi in Kent Place’s rendition of Rent.

“Where were you trained?” I was often asked.

Sure, I’d sung in the Williams College choir and an a cappella group, but the true answer was Kent Place. I learned how to sing at Kent Place. I learned how to perform at Kent Place. Those two skills have served me more powerfully than anything else in my life — not only as a musician, but also as a teacher and as a woman. A teacher who felt comfortable standing in front of a classroom of students not much younger than herself and commanding their attention. A young woman with a voice, unafraid to take a risk and speak her mind with courage and control.

Kent Place’s music program gave me opportunities to build this confidence time and time again, inside and outside of Summit, New Jersey. Edel Thomas encouraged me to audition for regional and national ACDA honor choirs, which strengthened my choral-singing skills and made me comfortable with various styles of music direction.

Singing in the Chamber Singers/Kent Place Singers/GirlChoir, my ears and eyes were constantly challenged to hear tricky harmonies and sight-read with accuracy. The pace was quick, the repertoire rich, and the expectations high. In orchestra and flute ensemble, I developed my ability to read music with facility and understand complex orchestration, thus enabling me to write arrangements for my all-gender a cappella groups in college and then in Andorra.

I learned how to sing at Kent Place.

I learned how to perform at Kent Place. Those two skills have served me more powerfully than anything else in my life — not only as a musician, but also as a teacher and as a woman.

Juliette performs as Mimi alongside Joseph Verga as Roger in Kent Place’s 2011 production of RENT.

I’ve never been more convinced that music is an essential component of education, and I’m eternally grateful for the musical training I received at Kent Place.

The middle school at which I’m now teaching has no arts program at all, and that just won’t do. I want to give the opportunities I enjoyed at Kent Place to my students in New Orleans, so I’m starting a choir.

The KPS music program prepared me for a future far beyond singing. It made me a leader and a team player, a soloist and a member of the choir, a creative, disciplined woman with a voice to be heard.

Juliette performs an original song to win Andorra’s televised talent competition, Talentejant.

Juliette graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in English and French. She’s a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of the Arthur C. Kaufmann Prize for Excellence in English. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Andorra for the 2017–18 academic year.

She is currently with Teach For America in New Orleans, teaching English to middle schoolers with special needs. V Voyager 21

MUSIC

The Joy of Music-Making

By Edel Thomas, Chair of the Music Department; Middle and Upper School Music Teacher

The Middle School Chorus sings at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

One of the greatest thrills for our music students occurs on the first day of rehearsal, when they look eagerly through their folders to see what repertoire they’ll be performing. Across all divisions, the rehearsal space is a-buzz with excitement and energy. This is the foundation for our culture of success.

Our program of performance-based classes is designed to engage students in the art of music-making. The experiences our students have with refined and polished performances motivates them, year after year, to reach their full potential. All levels of ability, whether instrumental or choral, thrive in one setting.

Eleanor Kanengiser ’20 and Isabel Kim ’20 are part of the brass section of the US Orchestra.

One of the unique features of our instrumental program is that it’s student centered.

Daily our teaching artists, who assist in all rehearsals, apprise both the director of the ensemble and the coaches of the students’ needs and strengths. Sectional rehearsals are often directly the result of an identified need for support. Opportunities for smaller chamber music ensembles and sponsoring students for external auditions for regional or all-state orchestras are often the result of perceived student strengths.

At the 2018 Regional ACDA honor choir festival, in Pittsburgh, I was struck by something that underscored many aspects of the success of our program at Kent Place. Five of our Primary School girls were working with the renowned clinician Susan Brumfield. In the same rehearsal space, two of our Middle School students were involved with the Junior High Honor Choir, exploring the vulnerability factor when one is immersed in performance. Again, in the same space, three of our Upper School girls were working with a composer on the world premiere of one of his pieces.

During a break, two of the choirs joined to sing for each other. The older students had performed several pieces of music by Dr. Brumfield and in minutes were in rapture; the younger girls knew

the composer but had yet to play her music.

Watching the Kent Place Upper School singers connect with their younger Primary “sisters” was remarkable.

The scope and the sequence of music at Kent Place unfolds in a natural way, yet every facet of this program is intentional.

All the joy of music is magnified when we take singing and playing beyond the Kent Place campus. This is when our musicians of all ages perform for an audience — and bring others into their magic. From our young Hummingbirds’ annual visits to the elderly at Juniper Village to our Middle School Choral Sings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City, our students bask in being in the moment. When they impart that pleasure to an audience, everyone is transported.

When the music fades and the applause dwindles, there will always be the camaraderie, the self-esteem, the joy. And memories.

When the most recent Upper School global choral trip ended and the young women were back on campus, they knew they’d always remember spontaneously singing “Dúlamán” in the Atlantic Ocean and “Bring Me Little Water, Silvie” in Dublin at the Angler’s Rest, and their hearts filled with happiness. V

One of the unique features of our instrumental program is that it’s student centered.

Second-graders learn to play the melodica.

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Mr. Thornhill rehearses with the US String Ensemble.

NEWS & VIEWS

Seventh-Grade Legacy Project

By Erin Hennessy, Chair of the English Department and Middle School English Teacher; Maura Crowe, Upper and Middle School Science Teacher; Cheryl Kaplun, Middle School Math Teacher; and Mark Semioli, Chair of the History Department and Middle School History Teacher The Legacy Project at Kent Place, an interdisciplinary design project for seventh-graders, was born in the fall of 2017. Teachers wanted to create an interdisciplinary project that would help students to see the connections across disciplines and empower girls to express themselves, take risks, and develop autonomy.

During the Legacy Project, students use a human-centered approach to identify and solve a problem by drawing on concepts that they’ve learned in all of their classes as well as the Stanford d.school Equity Design Thinking Process. Students are asked to consider the process through the lenses of sustainability, leadership, diversity and inclusion, academics, and facilities, all key aspects of the Kent Place experience.

Students begin the project by considering their own perspectives and experiences and identifying ways in which they might make their school a better place. Next, in 12 cohorts of four or five students, they narrow down their interests to one or two issues.

Some of the problems that students sought to tackle during this inaugural year were uncomfortable locker rooms in the Field House, limited options in the dining hall for special diets, and greater choices for filling the art and music requirements.

Every student then conducts stakeholder interviews to gather data and gain insights into others’ experiences and needs. Once each cohort identifies a specific user for whom it will design, students seek to understand that point of view more closely and use “How Might We . . .?” questions as a framework for exploring multiple possible solutions collaboratively. The process continues as students design, build, and test prototypes through multiple rounds of

Students begin the project by considering their own perspectives and experiences and identifying ways in which they might make their school a better place.

Roshni Kopparapu works on building a prototype for a life-skills class, her group’s ultimate goal.

feedback. A highlight of this stage is inviting constituencies from all across campus into the Innovation Lab to interact with students’ prototypes and offer feedback.

In the end, students select one possible solution and pitch it to a panel of faculty, administrators, and board members. The responses from everyone were overwhelmingly positive, and the students themselves had much to say about the impact of this work; here are a few responses from the end-of-project:

• “I liked how we got to actually make a

difference in the school because we got to try and solve a problem instead of just complaining about it all the time.”

• “I think it pulled together the collab-

orative aspect that you use in different classes. Like plate tectonics and expo in science, Shakespeare and dialogue journals in English, group work and skits

STEM SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES Alexa Café | July 22–26; July 29–August 2; August 5–9 (three separate weekly offerings) Alexa Café is an all-girls summer camp where girls learn to code, design, and engineer in small, collaborative clusters. iD Tech believes that whether a girl is designing a sleek webpage or learning to code creatively, technology shouldn’t be intimidating or uninspiring.

In the right environment, it’s cool, meaningful, and life-changing.

Our curriculum emphasizes leadership, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy. Week-long day sessions for girls ages 10–15.

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.kentplace.org/stemsummer.

in Spanish, researching with a partner in history, and escape room work in math.”

• “I thought it would be a little uncom-

fortable to talk about a problem with our school to the main stakeholders. I stretched myself by doing this and I want to continue knowing that you sometimes have to push and push something you want before it becomes a reality.”

• “I feel like in the future I want to stand up

more for what I believe in. It helped me to gain the confidence I need to really stand up for what needs to be changed.”

We believe that the Legacy Project encourages empathetic learning, imagination, perseverance, collaboration, and adaptability. It’s been amazing to see students develop greater ownership of their own learning in a shared, culminating moment of their seventh-grade year. V

KPS TO HOST

SPRING ADMISSION EVENTS Middle/Upper School (Grades 6–12) • Admission Information Session Tuesday, April 23 • 9:00–11:00 a.m.

Primary School (Preschool–Grade 5) • Admission Information Session Wednesday, April 24 • 9:30–11:30 a.m.

Explore KPS with Your Daughter! (Kindergarten–Grade 5) Saturday, May 18 • 10:00 a.m.–noon Preschool of Rock Show Saturday, May 18 • 10:00–11:00 a.m.

Summer Academy | June 10–August 2 Our Kent Place Summer Camp offers exciting “academies,” for boys and girls in Preschool–grade 10, which provide children the opportunity to focus on a specialized area of interest through dynamic weeklong programs. Summer Academy features unique programs in sports, dramatic and creative arts, and STEM.

Annie Woodall, Olivia Santoro, Alex Anderson, and Lizzy Washburn propose solutions to problems associated with homework.

A S C HO O L F O R

Please help to spread the word to friends, colleagues, and relatives!

BRAVE BRILLIANT GIRLS AND

Register online at www.kentplace.org/ admission/dates or call (908) 273-0900, ext. 265.

Voyager 23

NEWS & VIEWS

An Inside Look at Genius Projects Science Behind Concussions

An interview with Emma Claire Quinn ’24

and cons to the new helmet and wondered: Will this helmet make girls lacrosse safer or will it turn girls lacrosse into the similar but distinctly different game of boys lacrosse?

In many ways, Genius has enhanced my interest in this topic.

What leadership skills have you gained from this experience?

Emma Claire Quinn ’24

What’s your Genius project?

My Genius project started out being about concussions and what scientists and engineers are doing today to reduce the risk of suffering one. However, as I did more research and gained more knowledge, my Genius project evolved into this question: Should athletes playing girls lacrosse be required to wear helmets?

Why did you decide to make this your Genius project?

It’s a topic that’s been getting a lot of attention lately and people have become more and more aware of concussions and the dangers they pose to your brain. I participate in three contact sports and I’ve heard the word concussion mentioned multiple times but had never really known what it is. I want to use my newly acquired knowledge to make people aware of concussions but not be afraid to play the sport they love. During my research, I uncovered additional information about a helmet that’s being made for girls lacrosse. Because I play lacrosse and couldn’t imagine having to wear a helmet, I decided to investigate further if it’s a safer and better option for players.

Beside growing my knowledge of the human brain and how it’s affected by concussions, I’ve learned what it means to be a leader. I’ve learned that you don’t have to be the president of your grade or the captain of a sports team to be a leader. Leading is all about how you use your knowledge and the example you set for your peers. During Genius, I’ve learned a lot about concussions and what scientists and engineers are doing to try to reduce the risk of getting one, including making helmets for girls lacrosse. However, with knowledge comes responsibility, and using this knowledge I can teach other kids and athletes about concussions and to not be afraid to play a sport. Bringing awareness to concussions will encourage people to come up with ideas to try to reduce the risk of getting one. Many athletes have to stop playing a sport because they’ve suffered from too many concussions or no longer play out of fear. An important leadership skill I learned is that when there’s a problem, take initiative and seek out a solution. I think that’s the most important lesson I learned during Genius this year.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your experience?

The most rewarding part has been the opportunity to learn something I’ve always wanted to know more about. I have learned about amazing scientists and engineers who have worked hard and come up with brilliant ideas to try to reduce the risk of getting a concussion. Learning about these pioneers inspires me and makes me think: What can I do to help? What can I create? I was also struck with the realization that now that I have this knowledge, I can use it to make an impact. Having the ability to make a change is the most rewarding part of this experience.

The Latinx Project An interview with Clare Buckley ’20 Last year, Clare worked on a group project with Keili Murphy ’20 and Lizzie Herr ’20 to create a girls empowerment documentary on Kent Place students. Enjoying the group model and growing into her Genius skills, she switched gears this year and joined another exciting group of young women.

What is your Genius project?

My Genius project is the Latinx project, which is linked to bioethics. Adrianna Guarino ’20, Lizzie Herr ’20, Grace Holt ’20, Kiana McQuade ’19, and I are working on the project with Ms. Post and Dr. Rezach. Our goal is to communicate medical, particularly end-of-life, decisions to the Latinx population in the nearby area and to destigmatize these sorts of decisions. I joined the group this year and was immediately struck by the issue of the lack of communication between the medical community and the Latinx community. We’re working to overcome this, to bridge a gap between the groups.

Why did you decide to make this your Genius project?

I chose the Latinx project because I knew that it had the potential to have a real impact on the external community. I’m also very interested in Spanish, and I really enjoy learning it in school. I thought I might be able to apply my partial knowledge of the language to the project. I hoped to improve my Spanish skills while learning about bioethical dilemmas.

How has this enhanced your interest in ethical issues?

I’ve become more aware of a significant ethical issue that people in the local community are facing. The reality of the subject made me realize how much impact our group can have. One thing we did was visit Overlook Medical Center to learn about geriatric care. I look forward to Genius block because I like expanding my knowledge.

How has this enhanced your interest in athletics/ medicine/etc.?

Now I’m able to explore something that excites and interests me. Learning all about concussions and the fact that they can injure your brain permanently makes me ask a question: “What are we doing to solve this problem?” One potential solution is a helmet for girls lacrosse players. As I researched more and applied my own background knowledge, I discovered many pros 24 Voyager

(top row) Adrianna Guarino ’20 and Kiana McQuade ’19; (front row) Clare Buckley ’20 and Lizzie Herr ’20 (not pictured: Grace Holt ’20)

What leadership skills have you gained from this experience?

I’ve gained collaborative skills. Our group works really well as a team. Through research and interviews, we’ve learned a significant amount about what end-of-life decisions are and why it’s been difficult to start conversations about them with the Latinx community. I have gained more confidence, and can now apply my in-class knowledge to a real-world issue.

What’s been the most rewarding part?

The most rewarding my part of my Genius project is hearing new perspectives. Each member of my Genius group has shared different opinions regarding the issue.

We interviewed Dr. Barovero, and hearing her firsthand views as a Latina was really enlightening and definitely one of the most rewarding parts in my Genius experience. V

New to Upper School Genius “Spark” projects are pathways that groups of students may follow if they’re unsure of a specific project.

These Spark options offer an alternative to an

independent Genius project.

Becoming a Writing Mentor Bioethics Project Career Exploration Chamber Music Crafting with a Cause Create a Musical Curating: Organizing an Idea in a Museum or Gallery

KPS Upper School Academic Achievements NATIONAL HISPANIC RECOGNITION PROGRAM SCHOLARS Isabella Racioppi ’19 and Michaela Markels ’19

2018–2019 ADVANCED PLACEMENT SCHOLARS AP SCHOLARS WITH DISTINCTION Tarika Bansal ’19, Neha Bhardwaj ’18, Sanjana Boyapalli ’18, Julia Chandonnet ’18, Josephine Daab ’19, Charlotte Hagerty ’18, Sophie Huttner ’18, Emma Kelley ’18, Sofia Kwon ’19, Atinuke Lardner ’18, Ruth Laurence ’18, Nicole Leffler ’19, Alex McMullen ’18, Jacqueline Pothier ’18, Megan Traudt ’18, and Olivia Zeiner-Morrish ’18

AP SCHOLARS WITH HONOR Eleanor Alix ’19, Sarah Bonnet ’18, Kaira Brown ’19, Rose Chrin ’18, Rebecca Del Rio ’18, Anna DeLuca ’18, Madelyn Denenberg ’19, Piper Eccles ’18, Emma Fischer ’19, Yean Heo ’18, Madison Hobbs ’19, Toni Ann Iuzzolino ’18, Disha Karale ’19, Aynsley Kaufman ’19, Adya Khosla ’18, Alexa Kolakoski ’18, Veda Kumar ’18, Jaida Larkin ’19, Lucy Lynch ’18, Michaela Markels ’19, Sarah McDowell ’19, Laura Mills ’18, Hannah O’Loughlin ’18, Isabella Racioppi ’19, Sofia Scotto ’19, Jillian Sher ’19, Catherine Torres ’19, Emma Verpoucke ’18, Gabrielle Vicens ’19, Katherine Vieser ’18, and Mary Woodall ’18

AP SCHOLARS Hannah Abere ’19, Gabrielle Alpert ’19, Katherine Barrasso ’19, Caroline Benou ’19, India Berry ’19, Donna Bolourchi ’18, Anjolie Charlot ’18, Andra Constantin ’19, Filipa Costa ’18, Jayla Creekmur ’19, Erin Cronin ’18, Charlotte Crutchlow ’19, Elyse DiCesare ’18, Erin DuCharme ’19, Kelcie Engles ’19, Chloe Esposito ’18, Sophia Fanelle ’19, Sofia Faris ’18, Gillian Gogliormella ’19, Deanna Hanchuk ’18, Emily Hanson ’19, Grace Hillabrant ’19, Anna Hogarth ’19, Ethia Hu ’19, Stewart Hughes ’18, Keerthi Jayaraman ’19, Aneela Kanhai ’18, Sasha Khidekel ’19, Lauren Lindner ’19, Caroline Lubow ’19, Colleen McAloon ’19, Aidan McGuire ’19, Alexis McNair ’19, Isla Okkinga ’19, Olivia O’Sullivan ’19, Nikki Patel ’19, Natalie Ramseur ’18, Katherine Rebhun ’19, Grace Reddington ’19, Sophia Rich ’18, Kathryn Robinson ’18, Megan Sanford ’18, Kailee Saunders ’19, Sophia Sinins ’18, Keertana Talla ’19, Amber White ’19, Marianna Ziegler ’18, and Madeleine Zietsman ’19

2019 NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM COMMENDED STUDENTS Tarika Bansal ’19, Sasha Khidekel ’19, Sofia Kwon ’19, Nicole Leffler ’19, Michaela Markels ’19, Isabella Racioppi ’19, and Jillian Sher ’19

FTC Robotics Team Gender Girls Who Code Investments Math Team Media Production Mock-Trial Immersion National History Day Student Genius Task Force The Latinx Project Topics in Religious Studies

Voyager 25

NEWS & VIEWS

Media Studies

By Jennifer Dwyer, Upper School English Teacher In an era of fake news, alternative facts, and disinformation campaigns, discerning consumption of media is more and more necessary every day. In order to provide our students with the habits of mind they’ll need to navigate an increasingly mediated world, Kent Place is offering a new course called Media Literacy. The class is designed to cultivate critical-thinking skills that enable students to analyze and evaluate both verbal and visual expression in a variety of media, such as print, Web, and television news; satirical and comedic political programming; documentary film; educational programming for children; print advertisements; and television commercials.

Students in Media Literacy are developing and honing their understanding of rhetorical strategies as they’re employed across a variety of contemporary media. They analyze and evaluate the development of an argument in everything from a New York Times article to the opening monologue of The Daily Show.

The course focuses on teaching students to ask critical questions about speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, evidence, and bias. Students are simultaneously learning to analyze the impact of such factors as camera angles, lighting, and editing techniques on the message. For example, coursework so far has encouraged students to consider factors such as the way a photograph or video is edited to identify which points of view are represented and which points of view are not.

Understanding rhetorical dynamics like speaker and occasion in media products would be impossible without an understanding of media as a profit-centered business.

The class is designed to cultivate critical-thinking skills that enable students to analyze and evaluate both verbal and visual expression in a variety of media . . .

Media Literacy involves an examination of media ownership in the United States and its relationship to plurality and democracy.

Earlier in the year, students explored media ownership of industries that produce everything from textbooks to concert tickets to newspapers in order to identify who owns what. We studied the FCC, regulation and deregulation, vertical and horizontal integration, media conglomerates, and cross-media ownership. From there, we extended our learning to an analysis of the psycho-social and ethical questions born of the relationship between the business models that drive media and the products they generate.

opinions and decisions about historical and contemporary issues.” In keeping with these goals, Media Literacy encompasses both the study of media theory and production.

Students work with lighting, cinematography, editing, and sound to create their own digital platform. They use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, for example, to create logos and make advertisements designed for an array of media platforms. In this way, KPS students have the opportunity to engage with media in a more critical way; in understanding how the message is created, they will be better equipped to evaluate its credibility.

In addition, student work in media production exposes them to a wide array of potential passions, strengths, and career possibilities.

As an institution dedicated to educating girls and young women for global leadership, we spend a great deal of time encouraging our students to grapple with media representations of women. As of right now, the media industry is still a male-dominated one. A first step toward changing media representations of women lies in exposing girls to the possibility of working behind the camera — as well as in front of it. V

NEW CLASS

The portrait of a KPS graduate holds that “[s]he will be able to express herself with confidence and with a sense of purpose in writing, oral and digital form” and “will be able to apply quantitative, scientific and technological methods to gather and evaluate data that will inform her

Reflections on the Black Cultural Association (BCA) Trip

by Grace McGinley ’20 As a co-leader of GLAM’D (Girls Learning

Museum of African-American History

free while any woman is unfree, even if her

and Making a Difference), Kent Place’s

enabled me to further educate myself and

shackles are very different from my own.”

women’s rights club, I value intersectionality

explore what it means to be an intersectional

To me, this celebrated quote demonstrates

as it has a large role in my feminist iden-

feminist. Audre Lorde, an African American

the true meaning behind an intersectional

tity. Attending the BCA trip to the National

feminist writer, once stated that “I am not

movement and shows that female liberation

Leaders of the Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Association, Diversity Council, LatinX Club, and BCA

26 Voyager

Alumna Kristine Juncker, PhD ’93, the special assistant to the Director for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, shows the students a few pieces from the exhibit at the National Museum of African Art and shared aspects of her Kent Place experience.

is not a single issue or single identity matter.

Through my time at the National Museum of African-American History, I expanded my knowledge of women’s studies by viewing women’s issues from the lenses of black feminism, adding a different perspective to my interpretation of these issues. V

KPS TRIPS 2019

Follow these adventures on our social media using the hashtag #KPSGlobal.

Conserving Wetlands and Traditional Agriculture in Mexico March 10–16 | Grades 9–12

KPS–St. Peters Girls’ School Exchange: Year Two! From January 8 to February 1, Kent Place opened its doors to four exchange students from St. Peters Girls’ School (Adelaide, Australia). These exchange students were hosted by tenth-graders Julia Gerbino, Caroline Johnson, Hope Malloy, and Grace Novak. We were thrilled to welcome Ailani, Olivia, Ashley, and Stephanie. Our girls will travel to St. Peters in March. This is the second year of our participation in this exchange program.

Ecology Project International: Hawaii Ecology Program June 15–23 | Grades 6–8 China: Ancient Treasures and Modern Marvels June 10–20 | Grades 8–11 Habitat for Humanity: Jackson, Wyoming June 17–24 | Grades 10–12

Our 2019 Exchange Program participants from Kent Place and St. Peters

# K PS Glo bal 2019 Girls leading the way Summer Programs for Primary, Middle, and Upper School Students

•C ommunicate more effectively •S et goals to accomplish a vision •M ake ethical decisions • I dentify your leadership styles • Resolve conflicts •H ave an impact on your community •C onnect with women leaders

Primary School: June 24–28 Open to students entering grades 4 and 5 Middle School: July 8–19 Open to students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 Upper School: July 8–12 Open to students entering grade 9

Detailed information about each program, the registration process, fees, and financial aid are on our website, www.kentplace.org/gli.

E xciting Summer Opportunities . . .

Ethical Entrepreneurship 2019: Making the World Better Through Innovation June 24–28, July 1–2 Have you ever dreamed of being an entrepreneur? Do you want to create a product that changes the world?

The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School has again partnered with Montclair State University’s Center for Innovation to offer this exciting program. Here’s a unique opportunity that combines ethics, innovation, product design, and business skills that will equip you to be a socially responsible entrepreneur.

Join us for Ethical Entrepreneurship 2019: Making the World Better Through Innovation in the MIX Lab at Montclair State University. Limit 25 students, rising 9th- through 12th-graders, KPS and non-KPS.

Ethics in Action: STEM for Humanity July 15–26

Explore the intersection of ethics and STEM subjects as you design a product to benefit people with disabilities. Work with design experts at the Princeton University Council on Science and Technology and the Kent Place Makerspace to prototype your original idea. Learn from experts, partner with community advocacy groups, and collaborate with peers. Ethical Engineering means “creating and designing for social impact.” Limit 25 students, rising 9th- through 12th-graders, KPS and non-KPS.

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.kentplace.org/ethics.

Council on Science and Technology

Girls’ Leadership Institute 42 Norwood Avenue • Summit, NJ 07901 • www.kentplace.org/gli

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Voyager 27

2019

Kent Place School 42 Norwood Avenue Summit, NJ 07901 www.kentplace.org

BRAVE BRILLIANT GIRLS AND

blog The blog showcases our faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumnae as thought-leaders on innovative ways to teach and support bravery and brilliance in girls.

Continue the conversation using the hashtag #kpsvoyager.

www.blog.kentplace.org/blog

Voyager Credits Editor Rachel Naggar

Contributors Julie Gentile Sara Sultanik Doris Troy Arts Department Chairs

Professional Photography Ira Black Kathy Cacicedo Vinny Carcietta Alex Cena Will Hauser John O’Boyle

Design Abbie Moore Design

Direct comments about Voyager to the editor, at (908) 273-0900, ext. 217, or naggarr@kentplace.org.

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