Hello dear MSA families,
Creativity and collaboration and community-building – it’s all happening again in our classrooms and halls.
What a pleasure to step into classrooms where critiques are already happening in Foundation Art and students are providing feedback on the choices their peers make in their artwork. Veteran teachers like Taylor Mancini have such a profound way of inviting students into the conversation and using wait time to give students time to think and express themselves. And it’s not just in her room.
Walking from my office over to the new Center for the Arts, I pass students filming with professional gear in Cinematic Arts, artists pounding out their first clump of clay, dancers already in grand plie with their ballet teaching artist, musicians jamming, and actors rehearsing. It’s so familiar and sweet — even with the ubiquitous masks covering each face. We are making it work — and keeping each other safe.
Those energetic walks across campus land me at the source of great inspiration for the whole MSA team — the new Center for the Arts. We are beginning to use the space — last Saturday, theatre held their final auditions on the stage (see video below!); on Tuesday I hosted close to 400 students learning about NHS Office Hours in the auditorium; and our first exhibition “Models and Mentors: an MSA faculty exhibition” graces our gallery walls.
Every person who walks in is impressed.and I hope you will be too. Consider joining Shannon and me any Thursday from 3pm – 5pm for Open Hours. We’d love to take you on a tour of the space and mingle with parent volunteers from MSA Foundation. In the future, we hope different MSA teachers will use the Open Hours to workshop performances and works in progress. Our communities can hold space for the joys and inspirations of our artists while acknowledging the community sacrifices and sharing the space. Hope to see you in person sometime soon!
Warmly, Michelle