Program Overview
The art program at JAIS provides hands-on opportunities for students to explore the visual world and develop the skills to express themselves creatively with confidence. Our spiraling curriculum provides each grade level with developmentally appropriate challenges in a wide variety of techniques and media, including painting, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, graphic and book arts, collage, traditional and found-object sculpture, textile art and much more.
We are proud to engage each student as an individual and develop their critical thinking skills as well as the language to evaluate their own and others’ art work. From kindergarten up, students are introduced to contemporary and classic artists, prehistoric cave painting to puppetry, in our “artist of the month” program as well as integrated lessons featuring a multicultural mix of styles, periods and artistic professions.
Students design and produce the scenery for the annual school musical, providing one of many examples of cross-curricular cooperation and inspiration as well as practical experience in art professions such as theater design and set production. In every grade, studio artwork is inspired by integrated learning from classroom studies: from ancient cultures and mapping in social studies which inspire lessons in ancient art and architecture, watercolor painting and drawing in perspective to biomes studies in science which inspire landscape painting and environmental sculpture.
Students graduate JAIS with a solid grounding in the elements of art and principals of design. By learning to choose, set up and clean up their materials and studio responsibly, they learn to become independent artists, with high standards of craftsmanship and a clear sense of how to make aesthetic choices.
Click HERE for a link to the JAIS curriculum.