A YEAR OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

By Donna Bessette, Director of Related Arts

Student performers rehearsing for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. A fourth-grade student working on a Georgia O’Keeffeinspired painting as part of the Bones and Skeletons study. Members of the eighth-grade World Drumming class playing on their bucket drums in front of Memorial Dormitory.

While the pandemic placed restrictions on so many areas of student life last year, it did not stop Rectory students from expressing their creativity in the arts. We offered a full range of experiences for our students, with some modifications. Although our full orchestra and jazz band could not rehearse, we provided instrumentalists with new opportunities. Fifth and sixth graders were the first students to participate in our new ukulele program, and students from both the online and in-person communities enjoyed this new offering. Our advanced instrumentalists took advantage of our wonderful P.Y. and Kinmay Tang Performing Arts Center and practiced in individual practice rooms throughout the building, improving their craft while remaining safe. Our eighth graders in the World Drumming class added bucket drumming to their course and especially enjoyed playing outside when the weather permitted. There was music from all ends of the campus. Our fourth graders, who traditionally learn to play the recorder, played outside the elementary school building on the other side of campus. While we had limited opportunities to perform live for the community, we had three full virtual concert programs broadcasted during Fall Family Weekend, the Holiday season, and Spring Family Weekend. In addition, vocalists and other small groups shared their musical gifts through pre-recorded contributions at our monthly chapel services.

The Collins Family Art Barn and woodshop were also bustling with activity as they took on some exciting projects. Due to the nature of the art form, our students had fewer modifications in this area than they did in music. One of the most exciting silver linings of the pandemic was seeing the many ways students in our online school program shared their art with those on campus. Ninth graders continued to submit their traditional tile designs (see photo on inside front cover) and fantastic online digital photography; a new course added this past year. Each week, in her “This is Art” feature at morning assemblies, art teacher Judy Blakelock shared examples of student artwork so that all students and teachers, wherever they were living, could share in the experience.

Students in the ninth-grade digital media class and eighth and ninth-grade acting classes carried on as they did in previous years. We were grateful for their developing skills in this area, as we were reliant upon video recordings of our work more than ever. As advised by the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the National Association for Music Educators, we refrained from group singing; and our choral program focused on soloists. Soloists were featured in assemblies, concerts, and chapel programs. In addition, as restrictions eased, Rectory continued its most popular tradition of the Spring Musical Theater production, putting on a wonderfully entertaining performance of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

It was more important than ever to allow students to express their joys and frustrations through the arts during the past year. Their creative efforts were not only therapeutic for them but were also a gift to the community and a bright spot in these challenging times. We are grateful for their courage and perseverance to continue to create and for their flexibility as the process changed daily. We are incredibly thankful for the dynamic, resourceful, and caring teachers across all of Rectory’s related arts who provided our students with a safe and nurturing environment to express themselves in the arts.