Visual Arts
Decatur High School's Visual Arts department offers a wide range of art courses that include Drawing and Painting (Art I – IB/AP Studio Art), Ceramics, Graphic Design, and Photography. A scaffolded curriculum is in place to prepare students for portfolio coursework in IB (International Baccalaureate) Visual Art or AP Studio Art classes. In addition to ongoing competition exhibitions, student work is exhibited throughout the year at Decatur General Hospital, in the fall at the All City Music and Art Festival, and at Decatur High during their spring art exhibit. Students in the IB and AP Art courses have scored above the world average for the past two years. Students who excel in the visual arts at Decatur High School and who exhibit exemplary character and meet academic requirements are invited to join the National Art Honor Society (NAHS). NAHS was created by the National Art Education Association for the purpose of inspiring and recognizing those students who have shown an outstanding ability in art. NAHS members at Decatur High School complete art related service hours for the Carnegie Visual Arts Center and to create ceramic bowls to raise money for North Alabama food pantries. Decatur High School students participate annually in various city, state, and national competitions. In 2011-2012 students placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the city-wide PTA Reflections competition. A DHS senior was awarded a regional Gold Key in the prestigious Scholastic Art and Writing Award competition, a regional Blue Ribbon in the district 5 VAA competition, and also earned one of three portfolio scholarships in the Alabama State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Achievement Program that is annually adjudicated by college professionals from the Southeast according to AP College Board guidelines. The Decatur High School art department actively promotes the success of their students through participation in state and nationally recognized competitions and assists students in applications for portfolio and academic merit scholarships. During the 2011-2012 school year, students received over $140,000 in visual art scholarships.
Read more about this topic: Decatur High School (Alabama)
Famous quotes containing the words visual and/or arts:
“To write well, to have style ... is to paint. The master faculty of style is therefore the visual memory. If a writer does not see what he describes—countrysides and figures, movements and gestures—how could he have a style, that is originality?”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)