Creativity
We value creativity throughout the curriculum and across the grades. Tower students learn music history, voice, instruments, dance, drama, stage presence, set design, lighting and sound, clay, paper, textiles, paint, sculpture, woodworking, guitar building, architecture, metalwork, furniture making, art history and more.
Arts education is important to the intellectual and social growth of children and constitutes a vital component of Tower’s curriculum.
Director of the Arts, Frederick Shepard
Read,“The Importance of Arts in Education,” by Frederick Shepard
Creativity is not limited to the studios or the stage.
Teachers of all disciplines weave opportunities for creative self-expression throughout our multidisciplinary work and STEAM projects.
My art teachers at Tower have always stood out when I think about where my art career began. I gravitated toward art—whether it was on the kitchen floor after school with buckets of crayons and heaps of glitter (sorry, mom and dad!), or hurrying to my favorite classes in the art classrooms at Tower. I remember every project I made with Mr. Smith in his woodshop, all of the papier-mâché projects with Susan Van Ness, and the countless other projects with each of our art teachers. Mr. Smith taught me the trick to drawing a straight line—and as an artist, I can’t tell you how many straight lines I draw… and he pops into my head every single time, without fail.
Both my brother and sister went to Tower as well, and some of our favorite projects are still on display in our childhood home. Some of my memories of art at Tower are a blur of color and glue and paint, but they’re always accompanied with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, and the feeling of creative encouragement. I think the most important thing I left Tower with was creative freedom—I remember my teachers always encouraging us to nurture our creative instincts and, call it cheesy, to color outside of the box.
Emma Garfield, ’08, Artist,
sharing her experiences at Tower that inspired her career path