Massachusetts Department of Education has
designated the arts as core curriculum.
The visual arts are an important subject area for the following
reasons:
The visual arts provide an outlet for creativity that helps
develop our visual and tactile senses.
The visual arts develop perceptual and problem solving skills.
The visual arts teach students resourcefulness as well as how to
use materials and tools
The visual arts provide access and better understanding of our
historical heritage and culture as well as cultures around the
world/ past and present.
The visual arts provide opportunities for collaboration,
cooperative learning experiences and sharing of abstract ideas and
concepts.
The art program at Taft School, under the direction of our art
teachers Mrs. Diane Henries and Mr. Henry Skillern, employs a
cross and interdisciplinary approach to learning along with a
traditional discipline and content based approach. This provides
students with the means to develop visual awareness,, critical
thinking skills, and art in a historical context.
The art program is based on a sequential course of study with
constant reinforcement of the principals and elements of design,
balance variety, repetition, rhythm, unity, emphasis, texture,
color, line shape, space. This is accomplished through
introduction, review, and expansion as students progress from
grade 1 to grade 4. Ongoing reinforcement is the key to skill
mastery at each developmental level. At Taft School we pursue
these goals of the visual arts curriculum by working in a variety
of mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and
sculpture.
16 Granite Street
Uxbridge, MA 01569
Telephone: 508-278-8643/Fax: 508-278-8646
