- Visual Arts & Multi-Media Curriculum
The visual arts have many of the same elements as music:
form, rhythm, color, flow, dynamics. Both deal with a
conceptual understanding of something that is non-verbal.
Cultivating visual and kinesthetic sensitivity taps into a part
of us that can help us as musicians: the layer where the soul
of the performance comes in, the place that will help us
improve as musical communicators.
Here are some scenes from last summer's
"musical paintbrush" workshop in which
campers bowed the music they heard with
extraordinarily long paint brushes!
Including a theatric component to our end-of-camp performance, usually a musically-accompanied story
created by our campers, has become a tradition. Last year we incorporated visual arts in an official capacity
with great results! We plan to continue down this path for as long as it seems the right thing to do.
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| Our staff ethnomusicology and visual arts instructors collaborated to teach campers about shadow puppets: how they are used in different cultures, and how to build them. |
| Campers had a great time building puppets and experimenting with how to create different shadowy effects. |
| All week long a story was developed by the campers and faithfully honed into a narrative by a very dramatic staff member. The conclusion of our final performance was a full-blown shadow opera complete with narration, spoken parts, and on-stage shadow action all accompanied by our in-house pit orchestra. Everyone got to play an important part in this show! |