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Visual Arts

Enhancing the Skill of Articulating Ideas

The opportunity and ability for each student to articulate their ideas through visual art is a vital part of an education at the Harley School. We value the practice of art making as an ongoing creative process to be developed and explored. This perspective views the visual arts as a way to deepen student desire to develop their skills, be resourceful in challenges, and confident in expressing their vision.

In our spacious facilities, students engage in exciting and thought-provoking classes that help cultivate a lifelong relationship with the creative process. As artists and teachers, we understand making is not a talent or gift but a disciplined curiosity. We support this development with access to sound technical instruction and the freedom for students to express their unique ideas. 

Lower School

 

In a curricular sense, this journey begins in the Lower School where students interact in a combined experience of Art and Mindfulness. The practice of tapping into your emotions and senses allows for a deeper, more creative, and fulfilling art making. Students are introduced to a myriad of media and techniques, principles of design, and art history while simultaneously learning tactics to focus the mind and energy for a productive practice. Through this experience students learn to value the creative process of art making, risk taking, and problem solving through process-based exploration of media and ideas.

 

Middle School

 

Middle School students have the opportunity to further develop these concepts where they are introduced to more advanced techniques, tools, and digital technology. This work builds the individual student’s proficiency in media as well as their confidence to use them. The introduction of digital technology extends the breadth of their toolbox and the conversation about visibility in a visually complex culture.

 

Upper School

 

The Upper School is not considered a culmination, but rather a place where we hope to cement a lifelong relationship and confidence in creativity. We recognize that individual expression may differ significantly from student-to-student. Our goal is to ensure they are articulating ideas in a manner that feels authentic and successful. Students are able to explore a wide range of media including: glasswork, painting, drawing, sculpture, filmmaking, digital photography, and graphic design.

 

 

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts at Harley are opportunity for students to exercise their creative practice, develop skills, build confidence, and take risks. It allows the imagination to become tangible. Students in all divisions are encouraged to display their work in the Gallery  and Centrum where dynamic conversations take place across departments, divisions, and the greater Harley community. Art making at Harley is a memorable experience where student ideas are embraced as a crucial part of a vibrant curriculum.

Visual Arts Sample Courses

Dimensional Design

Digital Media

Documentary Film

Glassworking

Marketing and Graphic Design

AP Art Offerings

Studio Art—Drawing

Art Portfolio Preparation

Studio Art 3D

Studio Art 2D

Art History

Our Faculty

Katie Kindelan

Katie Kindelan

Upper School Visual Arts

Allyson Dingman

Allyson Dingman

Upper School Visual Arts & Glass Working

Rebecca Tracey

Rebecca Tracey

Middle and Upper School Visual Arts, Art Department Chair

Michael Frank

Michael Frank

Upper School Digital Media

The Harley School

1981 Clover Street
Rochester, NY 14618
(585) 442-1770

©2023 The Harley School

Our Upper School is filled with formal and informal opportunities for students to take on leadership roles. Whether following passions or learning new skills, student-driven opportunities take many shapes. 

  • Independent study: one trimester, full year, and multi-year projects have included automating our solar chimneys, coding handmade musical instruments, or developing a class on financial literacy for underserved high school students.
  • Serving on student council: 
  • STEM: Climate curriculum program, biomimicry program, NASA Hunch program

At Harley, our students learn how to evaluate social systems in order to identify complex problems in society through a lens of social justice. They take a hands-on approach to working for a fair, equitable society by researching, exploring and evaluating different perspectives, and offering solutions—both theoretical and practical.

Our faculty integrate social justice into our broader curriculum to assist students in gaining a foundational knowledge about what makes a democracy function. By gaining skills in ideating supportive pathways they become more exposed and experienced to how communities can undergo healing and restorative actions.

Students may create independent studies with supervising teachers throughout their Upper School experience or, during Grade 12, they can design Capstone projects—intensive collaborations with Harley faculty and off-campus mentors—involving rigorous academic study and culminating in public presentations. They are empowered to create their own curriculum, set goals, and work on time management skills in order to accomplish their objectives.

Independent Studies run the gamut from The Psychology of Sports to Furniture Design to The Neuroimaging of Alzheimer’s Disease. Capstones, meanwhile, are as diverse as the students who pursue them: Fictional Rochester, Autobiographical Art, Biomimicry Education, Organic Fuel, and Rochester Refugees. 

Indicative of Upper School curiosity and creativity, pursuits such as these distinguish our graduates in college. Through deep dives of this sort, Harley students master more than speaking, writing, and computing: they learn to communicate, advocate, collaborate, organize, listen, and empathize. 

About

Academics

Key Programming

Enrollment

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters: DEI

Harley Black Alumni Network

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters

Affinity Group Forms

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells