Information about the Fine Arts Department

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

Fine Arts

Philosophy and Overview

At the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, formal visual arts classes in grades one through twelve and drama classes in grades six through twelve present art as a language with unique expressive powers. Through the study of art, each Laboratory School student is encouraged to value and respond to his or her perceptions, observations, emotions, and intuition. The Fine Arts Department works to ensure that at each level of our program, students not only build skills, but also become more comfortable and confident in meeting the challenges of aesthetic self-expression. The Fine Arts Department maintains no established written curriculum. Instead, it charges each teacher, in his or her own way, with the task of transmitting valuable, coherent artistic concepts at each grade level.

The fine arts teachers employ teaching techniques that liberate and deepen our students' power of expression and challenge students to reconcile the powers of emotion and intuition with intellectual ability. In order to enable students to achieve success through creative effort, the Fine Arts Department initially teaches basic concepts which form the foundation for more advanced study. In the dramatic arts, students discover a heightened sense of awareness by developing their sensory perception and powers of observation.

The Fine Arts Department believes that the appraisal of art helps our students find a relationship between themselves and the lives and art of other individuals and cultures. While working to create their own art, students develop a deeper and broader experience of culture and the humanities.

Through the aesthetic education of the Laboratory Schools, students find new ways to perceive their world. By teaching aesthetic literacy, teachers expand their students' awareness of the world and their relationship to it.

Visit the Renaissance Magazine website
Renaissance Magazine is the University of Chicago Laboratory High School's annual publication of student art, literature, music and spoken word poetry.

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