Head of School John Gulla and Erik Aamoth '90 (Gordy Aamoth, Jr.'s brother) at the dedication of the new Gordy Aamoth, Jr. Memorial Stadium on Sept. 11. |
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From the Head of School
The Arts at Blake
Reprinted from "Parent News"
October, 2002
The ideal elementary and secondary school curriculum can never be fully described by the three R's. Where are the arts? Too many people believe that there exists a rigid hierarchy of subject areas in school. Modern day philistines believe that the most important subjects are English and mathematics, then history and science, followed by language, then the arts and finally physical education. How many of you have overtly, or more subtly, reified this ordering through your own conversations with your children? "Yes, that's a 5, or an A, but it is in art. What about that 3, or C, in English?" A similar narrowness of perspective occasionally rears itself among the mathematicians and natural scientists. Some believe that mathematics exists on the top of the pyramid. Then come physics, chemistry, biology, geology, ecology, a kilometer gap, and then the social sciences. Such a view is as myopic as it is misguided. (The Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály may have summarized it best when he revised his statement on music education from "The musical education of a child begins nine months before the birth of the child" to "The musical education of a child begins nine months before the birth of the parents.")
Visual and performing arts are as important as our work with verbal or mathematical symbolic language, written or oral expression, abstract thought, second languages, science or athletics. I can no more imagine a curriculum without an emphasis on the arts than I can imagine a life without music, painting or drama.
The arts are at the heart of who we are – as a school, as a culture and as a species. Rhythm, melody, line, form, color, scene study, improvisation and movement are all as central as poetry, geometry, empiricism, syntax or chronology in our work with students in developing a balanced, well-informed worldview. Ours is a liberal arts education.
As many of you know, the arts have been a major focus of our work at Blake over the last few years. As we make clear in our mission statement, " ... Students are expected to participate in an integrated program of academic, artistic and athletic activities ... ." A strengthening and expansion of the arts offerings at Blake at all levels of the school has been, and will continue to be, a central focus of the Centennial Campaign. We have hired additional staff in technical theater and vocal music during the last few years. Just this summer we hired Donna Bill to help us begin to build a program in stringed instruments to complement our offerings in band. She'll begin her work in the Middle School and with prekindergarten and kindergarten students. In the next year or so we'll explore the possibility of adding a movement and dance program at Blake.
Facilities to support the arts were a major focus of the Northrop building expansion and renovation. That building now has more square footage devoted to the arts on a per student basis than any non-specialized school I know. The vocal, instrumental and visual arts studios are first rate. There will be a black box theater, new ceramics and photography studios and a breathtaking new gallery space. There will be a new Virtual Gallery (vGallery), as well, where we will explore the exciting and emerging "new media" for artistic expression, including computer generated imagery, CAD (computer aided design) work and more.
Early in the Centennial Campaign, we accepted a significant restricted gift from one of the families involved in the founding of Highcroft. They earmarked their gift for planned improvements for this Lower School building. The future expansion and improvements will have an arts focus. We expect to enlarge the space available on that campus for performances and to build new rooms where some of the arts classrooms can be located together in order to foster more coordination among the faculty and enhance learning through interdisciplinary cooperation.
We also continue our active collaboration with arts organizations throughout the Twin Cities. The proximity of our Upper School to the Sculpture Garden and the soon-to-be-expanded Walker Arts Center (though we will be sorry to lose the Guthrie as a neighbor) make this an especially convenient collaboration. A recent exhibit at the Walker of the mesmerizing work of Shirin Neshat was a powerful reminder of the arresting power of the arts. Ms. Neshat considers herself a "passionate inquirer" who "prefers raising questions as opposed to answering them." That can be said of all good students. The arts complement, and do not compete with, the more traditional academic elements of our program. For another example that draws on a local institution for inspiration, I submit that it is through art (and occasionally through nature) that we can know the sublime. The American landscape painters show us this in the current exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
I urge all who care about the arts to judge us not only by what we say but also by what we do. The precious commodity of time at Blake is allocated most judiciously. From the first days of prekindergarten, throughout the Lower and Middle schools, and into our elective programs in Upper School, Blake students are singing, acting, drawing, painting, playing instruments and in many other ways making art. Their art is creative; it is courageous; it is beautiful and it is them. Long live the arts!
John Gulla
Head of School
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