Arts
rts classes, curriculum and instruction at Buxton are unparalleled. Not only does our faculty truly believe in art as the foundation of modern education, but also we are located in the cultural heart of the northeast – with the very top artists in the world as our neighbours, mentors and teachers. Our students follow suit: blowing us away with their talents and capabilities every year. It is a pleasure, a challenge and an unmatched opportunity to explore the arts at Buxton.
Classes usually consist of no more than five students, each working at his or her own pace. Students are also invited to use the studios for outside of their assigned class time, including after school and on weekends. Visits to art museums and galleries, off-campus assignments, workshops with visiting artists, slide shows, figure drawing and other evening and weekend events are all part of a student’s introduction to making art. Student work is displayed twice each year—during the Fall and Spring Arts Weekends.
For students who want to learn both the basics of throwing on the potter’s wheel and / or how to hand-build clay works. Classes include slide shows, reading assignments and trips to local galleries and museums to broaden understanding of the past and present states of ceramics as art.
For students who are comfortable centering and throwing four to five pounds of clay and spending 2+ hours outside of class in the studio each week. Classes include slide shows, reading assignments and trips to local galleries and museums to broaden understanding of the past and present states of ceramics as art.
Students learn to hand-build ceramics with coils and slabs of clay through weekly assignments and group projects. Classes include slide shows, reading assignments and trips to local galleries and museums to broaden understanding of the past and present states of ceramics as art.
Buxton offers three main types of photography instruction: black and white, digital and 19th century historical processes. Black and white film photography introduces the fundamentals of film, paper, processes and chemicals necessary to create and print an image and includes a camera and other supplies for each student. Digital photography is taught in a digital lab with the latest editions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. During winter term, students explore a variety of 19th century processes to make their own negatives and photographic paper, in addition to recreating experiments and exploring scientific underpinnings of photography
Printmaking at Buxton is of the intaglio variety, meaning students incise an image or design into a surface, roll the surface with ink and then place paper on the surface to transfer the image.
Through exploration in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, fabrics, found objects, and mixed media, students can begin to articulate their artistic visions. Projects are defined through individual discussion. Students are encouraged and introduced to use a broad range of materials. What inspires the student determines which methods of working, materials, and ideas are explored. Throughout, students begin to relate their daily experience to the process of making art.
Students can take structured art classes that offer formal skill sets in drawing, painting and printmaking with an emphasis on balancing direct, observational skills with expressive, independent work. There also is the opportunity to take ‘open studio’ classes where students can work independently on any idea with almost any medium; instruction is available and responsive to individual projects.
Spring term we will be looking at satire and mockumentary as a means of telling stories through
video. As a class, we will create videos that aim to honestly capture our lives here at Buxton, and
when appropriate, poke fun at the more absurd parts of it. People of all editing levels are
encouraged to join; no previous video production is necessary
Offered as either a single- or double-semester course, video production offers students the chance to work hands on with HD, DSLR and DV cameras and Final Cut Pro X software to tell stories via narrative, documentary and experimental filmmaking. Each student maintains a storyboard and video journal and must complete weekly assignments in short documentary and narrative video experiments.
For students who are not enrolled in art classes, we encourage them to explore the studios. Students may come in for single free periods during their academic day, outside of their assigned class time, or after school and on weekends. Much of the art created at Buxton is made during time outside of formal class periods. For an expanded description of the art possibilities at Buxton, please see Arts in the course section.