Category Archives: Student Work

Winter an Active Time for Williston Arts

Students are creating compelling abstract black and white compositions.
Students are creating compelling abstract black and white compositions.

Question: In this interstitial season when the fall play and concerts are complete and spring shows are a long way off, what’s going on in the the arts at Williston?

Answer: The arts are bustling in this “off” season!

Visual and Performing Arts Department Head Natania Hume notes that there is a buzz of activity right now in the arts. Documentary photo students recently took a field trip to MAP Gallery to meet with photographer Tracey Eller. The Caterwaulers, Williston’s male concert chorus, now has a critical mass of 30 voices and with all those basses can hit the low notes (the New Grove Dictionary of Opera defines the bass range as the E below middle C to the E above middle C). Winter dance revs up with student choreographers creating compelling and relevant work, including one celebrating the legacy of Black dancers and choreographers. And visual artists are hard at work starting with compositions in black and white.

“This in-between season is a ripe one for making art at Williston,” said Ms. Hume. “I always think of winter as a time when artists go inward and hunker down to create in earnest.”

The Caterwaulers are ready to sing low.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Arts Events Kick off End of School Year

May is Arts Month at Williston, and it’s been busy! Over the past few weeks we’ve featured our sold-out Spring Musical, In the Heights (see photos at our Flickr page) and our Spring Instrumental Concert (photos coming soon!). As the year comes to a close, several more fantastic student performances are coming right up, so mark your calendars! 

  • Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21: Spring Dance Concert, “Music Made Visible,” Williston Theatre, 8 p.m.
  • Tuesday, May 24: Spring Choral Concert, “Songs of Love and Betrayal,” Phillips Stevens Chapel, 7:30 p.m.
  • Wednesday, May 25: Williston Scholars Artists Reception, Grubbs Gallery, 6 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 26: Eight Grade Art Show and Shakespeare Performance, Williston Theatre, 6 p.m.

Winter Arts Roundup

Trimester 2 wrapped up with fantastic performances by Williston visual and performing artists:

  • From February 18-20, Williston students presented the annual Winter Theatre Lab performance, this year entitled “Fish Out of Water.” See photos here.
  • At “Songs of Then and Now,” a Winter Choral Coffeehouse, students performed a variety of songs, from pop music to madrigals. See photos from the February 26 event here.
  • Dance and choreography students presented their work in an afternoon performance in the Chapel on Monday, February 29.
  • This Thursday, March 3 in the Grubbs Gallery, the Trimester 2 Arts Walk will offer an opportunity to see student work in the Grubbs Gallery and hallways of Reed Campus Center, from 6:30 – 7:45 p.m.

 

Art Classes Combine for A Day

Middle and Upper Schoolers come together to learn from each other
Photo by Dennis Crommett
Photo by Dennis Crommett

When Ms. Chambers is away, the seventh graders will play…with the Upper School Sculpture I that is.

With their art teacher, Rachel Chambers, on a field trip during their Thursday class, the Middle Schoolers paired up with older students to learn how to sculpt, pour, and set a mold in a process known as bad relief casting.

All around the Reed studio, students were helping each other carve and shape forms. In one corner, a group of Upper School boys began filling buckets with plaster, while their younger counterparts mixed the white goo with their hands.

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Voices of Williston

Guest post by Maggie Fitzgerald ’14

My senior project, based on Middlebury College’s “How Did You Get Here?” is a collection of interviews with a Williston teacher, student, parent, and alumna. My goal for this project was to create a forum which students and teachers of the community could listen to the stories of their peers.  I’d like to express my gratitude and my belief that every person in the Williston community has been essential to the experience I’ve had during my three years at Williston. Hopefully, by viewing my project, students will gain a sense of appreciation and pride for their school. Although the sample size of the community seen in this project is small, the enthusiasm that gleams from the interviews gives an insight to the greater unity of the Williston Northampton School Community.

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