Hello All,

This is a gentle reminder to the community that the Fine & Performing Arts classrooms and spaces are for those students and faculty involved in those programs.  With the visual arts in the Upper School, students pay a substantial studio fee per course for the supplies used in their classes.  In the Middle School, we have a budget for supplies to be used specifically for those classes.

This week alone, we’ve had three different occasions where students have come into the Middle School art studio looking for supplies for non-arts projects and activities. If you have a project assigned in a class outside of the Fine & Performing Arts and you would like to use any of the spaces, please be sure to ask permission from the adult in charge of that space before doing so.  Simply coming in and moving items that are in your way or helping yourself to supplies and/or equipment can have tragic results for the artists.

Sometimes what seems insignificant to one person is a crucial piece to another’s work of art.  If a paintbrush is used and left with ANY residue in the bristles, the brush is destroyed.  If paper, glue, paint, clay, sticks, pencils, pens, erasers, etc… are used up, then they are not available for the projects for which they were intended.  If you have ‘borrowed’ any supplies, particularly colored pencils, regular pencils and erasers, please return them immediately. Having working supplies on hand throughout the year is vital for our art students to be able to complete their final projects and assessments.  As you all know, our community relies on us working together to uphold our integrity in everything we do.

The arts spaces in the Reed Center and Scott Hall are wonderful resources for all of us to use, and we try to make them as accessible as possible to our full community.  Some of our spaces need to be kept locked for safety reasons and to protect the equipment within.  If you are not enrolled in a class, but have a specific need or would like to use a space for an event, we will do our best to accommodate your needs.  Here are the people that you need to check with before you use the following spaces:

Photography Studios: Ed Hing
Painting & Design Studios:  Susanna White and Rachel Chambers
Second Floor Drawing/Sculpture Studio: Susanna White
Third Floor Art Studio/Ceramics Studio and Grubbs Gallery: Natania Hume
Dance Studio: Laurel Raffetto
Dodge Room: Ben Demerath and Cathy Kay
Practice Rooms and Music Classrooms: Ben Demerath, Cathy Kay, Jon Weeks, and Nicole Fizznoglia
Theater Spaces, Set and Costume Design Shops: Emily Ditkovski, Charles Raffetto, and Ilene Goldstein

Thanks again to all for your help with this!

Ben Demerath