e Milestone

e Art of Persuasion

Taught by industry veteran David Brooks P’23, “ e Art of Persuasion” made its debut as an English elective this year. With over thirty years of experience in leadership roles in the entertainment marketing industry, Brooks has worked with divisions of Disney and Universal Studios, the Motion Picture Academy, and Net ix, overseeing successful campaigns for numerous awardwinning lms and series. Using Govs Arts and its extensive spring events lineup as a focus, students learned hands-on, real-world marketing skills, developing and implementing strategic marketing campaigns that rolled out throughout this past winter and spring on campus and beyond. Along the way, students explored building strategy and campaign pillars, creative design and editing, social media, PR, events promotion and more, working with in-class teams and cross-functionally with other classes.

International Student Conference

On January 29, Govs students hosted the 2023 ISC (International Student Conference): Losing and Finding Myself. Co-founded and directed by Judy Wang ’23 and Jana Choe ’23 with significant support from Mi y Wang ’24, Brian Zheng ’24, and Cecilia Li ’24, and in partnership with students at Phillips Exeter Academy, the ISC hosts international students from New England boarding schools to discuss the cultural, academic, social, and emotional challenges—and, ultimately, the rewards—of life as an international student. More than 140 students from New England boarding schools participated in workshops focused on ways to cope with disorientation, identity, and how they are seen vs. how they wish to be seen by others. Dr. Abel Djassi Amado was the keynote speaker.

Winter Concert

e Winter Concert, the culmination of our students’ e orts for the fall semester, showcased the impressive range of musical talent and artistic expression among our students and faculty. e concert featured the Academy’s large ensembles and smaller student groups, including the Academy Orchestra, the Academy Singers, chamber groups, Jazz Combo, e First, and the Jazz Band. Musical selections ranged from traditional holiday favorites to challenging orchestral pieces from various styles including American Folk music, Louisiana Cajun Blues, funk and jazz standards, and a hypnotic rendition of “Old Buddhist Prayer” (Vieille prière bouddhique), sung in the original French by e First. Many of the pieces were technically demanding, requiring expertise and passionate dedication to musical performance.

Parenting and Gender Socialization

Dean of Multicultural Education Edward Carson hosted a series of seminars aimed at advancing the Academy’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and personal growth. History teacher Bill Quigley P’04,’10 teamed up with his daughter, Dr. Kelsey M. Quigley ’04, an instructor of expository writing and psychology at Harvard College, to present a seminar titled “Adventures in Gender-Creative Parenting.” Kelsey and her partner Dr. Alex Busuito, along with Bill as grandfather, shared their experiences and insights on the joys and challenges of gender-creative parenting and grandparenting Kelsey’s and Alex's three children, ages 5, 3, and 8 months. As clinical child psychologists, Kelsey and Alex also provided a developmental and clinical psychology perspective, including the di erence between sex and gender and the e ects of gender socialization on children.

Pit-Fired Ceramics

3D Visual Arts teacher Shana Fleigel recently introduced her students to the ancient art of pit red ceramics—the original 30,000 year-old method of baking clay. e process is an atmospheric ring, using no glaze, where materials including banana peels, co ee grounds, nut shells, horse hair and manure, seaweed, steel wool, and citrus rinds, among other materials, create beautiful patterns and impart unique ashes of color. Students wrapped their original pottery pieces in copper wire, placed them in the pit they had dug and covered the pieces in the organic ring materials and hardwood, creating fuel and carbon trapping. e bare clay acts as a blank canvas, absorbing carbon (black), sodium (pink), and copper (green-red) in endless combinations. After ring, the pieces are burnished with wax, giving them the appearance of having been created by nature. Students were proud to display their nal work in buildings around campus.

Fall Drama

As part of our celebration of 50 Years of Women at Govs, Bonniejean Wilbur directed the fall drama students in two plays by American feminist playwrights: Tri es (1916), a one-act play by Susan Glaspell and Untitled Matriarchy Play (Or Seven Sisters) (2016), by Nikole Beckwith.

Tri es was performed in the Duncan Phillips Library, which allowed an intimate setting for audiences to experience this quiet murder mystery about the ways in which women act in solidarity, persevering in the face of oppression and abuse at the hands of the men in their lives.

Untitled Matriarchy Play was performed in the round on the Bergmann eater stage. Witty, zany, and insightful, Newburyport native Nikole Beckwith’s play evokes a range of emotions as a mother and her four daughters struggle to work out their complex and messy relationships.

Belle Struck’s ’94 Wild Elegies

On February 3, the Academy hosted a reception and artist’s talk with Belle Struck ’94 to celebrate her art exhibition, Wild Elegies, a culmination of artworks as part of her Masters in Fine Art degree program at Lesley University’s College of Art and Design. The drawings, installations, and sculptures embody once-living items into newly imagined networks that examine the wildness of both the psychological and natural landscape. Struck’s work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and she is a regular resident artist at the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Everyday Inspiration

Last fall, Govs was honored to host a show for local printmaker Chris Robinson in the Remis Lobby of the Wilkie Center for the Performing Arts. Robinson’s exhibit, “Ink + Pressure = Prints,” featured a diverse collection of her prints made using techniques such as etching, woodcut, linocut, and silkscreen. Robinson has been a resident artist at Chase’s Garage in Maine for the last five years, where she finds inspiration for her work from everyday items in her home and during walks with her dog. Her aim to depict the beauty and significance of the seemingly mundane.