Upper School Arts

The Upper School arts program is designed to tap the creative potential and powers of imagination in every student. All freshmen participate in the arts, choosing a one-semester course in the Visual Arts as well as a semester in the Performing Arts. Half of the students at the Upper School commit to the arts beyond the two-year requirement.

The range of opportunities is broad. Visual arts offerings include drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and woodworking. In the performing arts, we offer vocal and instrumental music, dance, drama, and film and video, with countless opportunities for participation in school concerts or plays. If you have a passion for art, you can reach even higher levels of accomplishment and artistic sophistication. And even if you never thought of yourself as an artist, you’ll be achieving in ways you didn’t believe were possible, gaining an appreciation for art and renewed confidence in your own creative talents.

This creative energy is guided by the expertise of 14 faculty members, each a talented artist in his/her own right. Home for the arts is BB&N’s stunning Renaissance Hall, which opened in 2007. The facility features a renovated theater, art galleries, acoustically pristine orchestra, choral, and dance rooms, an expansive ceramics studio, a photography studio graced by both a conventional as well as a “digital” darkroom, and a light-filled art studio loft on the third floor.

A revealing statistic about the arts at BB&N is that two out of every three seniors chooses to participate in some form of art as part of their Senior Project program during their final eight weeks at school. We believe that this pattern of choosing to be artistic during Senior Projects speaks volumes about the passion that BB&N students hold for the arts and for the benefits and joys of the creative act.

Click here to view full course descriptions for Upper School Arts.

Upper School Art Department


Back row standing from left to right: Ross MacDonald, Lanie Wurzel, Joel Sindelar, Elliot Cless, Pandelis Karayorgis
Middle on chair: Adam Howarth
Front row from left to right: Chris Gaines, Anna Van Voorhis, Laura Tangusso, Nicole Stone, Andrew Warren, Amanda Lewis

Not pictured: Louise Brown (costume) , Christian Tonsgard (ceramics), Jenny Lifson (Dance)

Petropoulos Art Scholars Program:
Each year the Arts Department creates a varied program of extracurricular events that are of interest to motivated performing and visual arts students. The program includes sessions with visiting artists, workshops on the use of new materials or techniques, and field trips to galleries, museums, artist studios, and theaters. Students who participate in 75 – 80 percent or more of these enriching events are designated as Petropoulos Art Scholars at the end of the academic year.