Click here to view a 12:00 minute video on Viewpoint's arts programs.Additional Media Library Content:
Click here to view galleries of music performances.
Click here to view a sample of student films.
Click here to view performing arts photo galleries.
Click here to view a video of the In Concert 06 dance performance.
At Viewpoint, we believe that a strong artistic foundation is essential. The arts program comprises the Departments of Visual Arts, Music, Theater Arts, and Film and Video, as well as the dance program within theater arts. Together, these programs encourage creative thinking, self-expression, originality, emotional release, questioning, problem solving, and a richer appreciation of the world, past and present.
The visual arts program begins in the Primary and Lower grades with Kindergarten’s focus on the development of fine motor skills, and continues through Fifth Grade’s art appreciation, calligraphy, ceramics, pastel, and watercolor work. In weekly art classes taught by skilled instructors, our youngest students find and hone their talents. In the Middle and Upper Schools, students benefit from the expanded programs in sculpture, photography, ceramics, multicultural art, drawing, and Art I through Advanced Placement Art. Throughout the curriculum, from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade, students and teachers compete annually in local and national art contests.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the music of Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, Oliver!, Our Town, Appalachian Journey, a Bach Cantata, Sinatra Duets, medieval madrigals -- these are but a few of the plays, songs, musical pieces, and dances that Viewpoint students have performed in recent years. The performing arts have been an integral part of Viewpoint since its founding.
Students in Primary and Lower Schools cherish their opportunities to sing, dance, and act at weekly assemblies and in the holiday programs. They perform with enthusiasm and joy, and savor the opportunity to be on stage. Viewpoint’s youngest students typically perform the masterpieces of children’s literature, stories that sometime they themselves will read to their children. They include Peter Rabbit, The Little Engine That Could, and The Wizard of Oz.
The opportunities to perform grow by the end of Lower School when students begin their formal study of musical instruments, first with the study of recorder, and next, with formal instruction on either a string or wind instrument. The first performance by these fledgling musicians is a touching musical moment for their families. We marvel that the earliest cacophonous sounds begin to blend and to produce pleasing melodies.
The first full-scale theatrical production occurs in Middle School when students annually perform a classic of musical theater. Recent plays include Cinderella, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oliver!, The Music Man, Annie, and The Imagination of Lewis Carroll. These fully costumed, professionally staged productions delight both the audience and the performers, and engage all students who wish to perform. Whether they are experienced performers or novices, Middle Schoolers may also participate in dance, jazz band, orchestra, chorus, and filmmaking.
By Upper School, most of our performers have identified their creative passions. Those committed to dance join the Conservatory of Dance. The most serious musicians and singers combine their performances with the formal study of music theory. The Upper School’s actors perform in two major productions each year, and the most devoted join the Conservatory of Theatre. Recent productions include Twelfth Night, Bye Bye Birdie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Guys and Dolls, The Crucible, and Into the Woods.
A number of students also become enthusiastic participants in the filmmaking program, and see their creativity and imagination realized as music videos, special effects films, claymation animation, poem-ography, documentaries, and original short films. Viewpoint's former film students have achieved the highest national recognition as Presidential Scholars. Several students each year continue to pursue their art in college and beyond.
