Visual Arts Highlights

This was a year that called us all into more solitary pursuits, and Cushing’s Visual Arts programs—always one of the strongest at any secondary school anywhere—continued to thrive.

A fall highlight was a surprise “pop-up” photography show installed in the wee hours of the morning along the Main Building walkway.

During Cushing’s Winterim session—in between the fall and spring terms—visual arts students wrote a story of their own life, illustrated it, and created a handmade book as part of a project called “The Value of Story.”

Through the year students, guided by skilled faculty, worked in Cushing’s workshops and beyond (even those learning remotely!) to create beautiful paintings, drawings, metalworks, jewelry, glassworks, ceramics, photographs, and architectural creations. The gorgeous works that came out of the 2020-2021 school year were celebrated in the Cushing Academy Visual Arts Magazine.

In addition, Cushing students garnered an enormous number of outside accolades. Cushing visual artists received 45 awards this year from the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Eunsoo Kim ’22 and Tyler Ro ’21 earned top honors as National Medalists. Each of them had a winning piece shown as a part of the National Award online exhibition.

Cushing had an impressive 11 Gold Key awards; all Gold Key recipients advanced to have their works judged at the national level. Our students also earned 16 Silver Keys and 18 Honorable Mentions. These works rose to the top in the Massachusetts region, where there were 5,800 total entries. For a list of all the Cushing winners and a link to a gallery of the works, please visit https://bit.ly/3aEMX2d

A fall highlight was a surprise “pop-up” photography show installed in the wee hours of the morning along the Main Building walkway.

Julia Zhu

Ananelen Zaragoza

Each year, Cushing students produce an extraordinary number of creative pieces. This magazine highlights some of the artistic creations produced by our talented artists during the 2020-2021 academic year. We commend our students for their hard work, talent, progress, and willingness to share their work with others. We hope you enjoy their work as much as we do.