Visual Arts

The arts at Haverford invite the boys to explore their identities. As such, the visual arts are a key part of every Haverford student's experience. Every division includes explorations in the visual arts as they play an integral part in boys' growth.

All Upper School students enjoy access to several specialized electives. These classes develop student talent while encouraging them to explore their creativity. Students at all levels work with skilled artists—themselves practicing professional artists—amid outstanding resources and facilities.

The visual arts focus on hands-on experiences. The many options available for boys to discover their inner artistic talents include:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Photography
• Digital arts
• Video and animation
• Ceramics
• Woodworking

We aim to foster safe and fun studio environments. We encourage boys to experiment with many types of media and share their artistic inspirations.

What does The Haverford School believe about visual arts education?

The Haverford Art Department believes that an understanding of and practice in the visual arts is an essential part of a strong liberal arts curriculum. As well as providing learning experiences that lead to further study and careers in creative professions, the art curriculum emphasizes the ways in which working in the art studio teaches broader essential life skills. Artists often work from observation in order to strengthen their ability to see more powerfully and critically. We understand that artists use this powerful visual language of signs, symbols, colors, and forms to investigate and communicate ideas. Through their studies, students become aware of how this language is at work in the world around them and become skilled in their ability to communicate effectively. Works of art often involve subtle meanings and complex systems of expression that go beyond ordinary speaking and writing. The actual practice of making art engages the imagination, fosters flexible ways of thinking, develops disciplined effort, promotes innovation and builds self-confidence. Creative people of all sorts, artists, writers, designers, scientists and engineers are all well versed in the complex and challenging process of bringing new ideas into being.

Through the Visual Arts curriculum at Haverford, students are able to gain a facility with this creative practice, making it transferable across disciplines. For some students the study of art will lead to careers in the arts. For many others, it will develop a valuable facility with the often frustrating creative process of bringing something new into being, whether they do so in the art world, the business world, scientific careers or wherever they find themselves. Others, too will have permanently enhanced the quality of their lives with a fluency in the visual language and an informed appreciation of the arts.

Each course offered provides students with a broad survey of contemporary and traditional art concepts, techniques and working methods. 2-Dimensional courses emphasize the study of art concepts through the use of drawing, painting and printmaking media. 3-Dimensional courses emphasize traditional sculptural media such as ceramics and woodworking as well as the most contemporary techniques such as 3D printing, laser engraving and product design. 2D Design, Photography and Video & Animation students work with some of the most contemporary digital media available to artists creating photographs, videos, animations and graphic design works. Woodworking Arts addresses these same overarching skills through traditional and contemporary work in this medium. Sequential courses build on the knowledge and skills developed in earlier courses but are flexible enough to allow students to move between 2- dimensional, 3-dimensional or Digital media courses. We strive to instill the courage to face challenges, the skills and practices involved in solving complex problems, a fluency in the primal visual language and an understanding and appreciation of the visual arts and the work of artists throughout time and across cultures.

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