From your first step onto campus or into a classroom, you will see how the arts and art appreciation is integrated into the programming at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School. From color exploration and pentatonic flute in Grade 1 to marble carving and learning selections from Handel’s Messiah in Grade 12, the fine and practical arts play a vital and vibrant role in the curriculum and the community.
Arts in the curriculum balances and supplements academic work, providing students an opportunity to both communicate what they have learned while also expressing their individuality. Presenting a play each year not only exposes participants to new literature, some penned by their own teachers, but also fosters public speaking skills and instills confidence.
Learning the practical arts of wood carving, farming, and handwork is empowering. Students begin to see their own strengths and capacities in a new way – as individuals able to create and to transform an object. From a skein of yarn comes a warm scarf, from a grain of wheat comes a loaf of bread, from a block of wood comes a delicate spoon.
While an important part of the classroom experience, many students also choose to deepen their experience of the fine and practical arts through extracurricular activities. Jazz band, voice, and music lessons are available to all students, as are classes with professional artists, actors, and an improvisational group.
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