Visual Arts

Expand your perspective

With vibrant art shows, diverse classes, creative students, professional artist-teachers, and a working gallery on campus, HPA offers a feast for the eyes. In our classrooms and studios, you will learn to see more acutely and express yourself more freely through a range of media. When not in the studio, aspiring artists draw inspiration from HPA’s beautiful campus and across this spectacular island we call home.

Lower School

Our curriculum introduces young children to the language of visual expression. The elements of art (line, shape, form, etc.) and the principles of design (balance, movement, rhythm, etc.) become tools for making art in a variety of styles. Students also examine art from different periods and cultures, and begin to think about art as a powerful vehicle for documentation, change, and self-expression.

Middle School

As students gain visual literacy, they explore more media and begin to produce artwork at a new, often extraordinary, level. In addition to drawing, painting, and ceramics, middle-schoolers have access to specialized topics such as water media, acrylic, ceramics, digital art, or silk painting for a semester. Theme Week and other co-curricular activities offer additional range for our artists to advance their skills.

Upper School

All first-year students are introduced to 2-D and 3-D visual art in our Fundamentals in the Arts class. From this common starting point, they can continue with intermediate painting, drawing, print-making, ceramics, and intermediate sculpture, or explore interdisciplinary work with mixed media and digital media. All of these experiences equip students to produce rich and compelling personal portfolios; execute 12th grade capstone projects; and find success in art school or university art departments, should they wish to pursue that objective.

The Zephyr

Check out The Zephyr

Our student-run journal of literature and the arts at the Upper School.