Visual and Performing Arts
Over the 176-year history of the school, fine arts has grown from a student activity into an integral part of the curriculum. Beginning in the 1890s, glee clubs and orchestras, organized by students, performed at term dinners and in the following decade, faculty advisers oversaw these groups. In 1901, the first play was performed by students under the direction of a faculty adviser. These groups evolved into clubs, known as Etta Kappa Alpha (theater) and the Offbeats (singing) which were important contributors to extracurricular life at Worcester Academy. In early the 1980s, courses in performing and visual art were offered. By the end of the decade a Visual and Performing Arts Department was formed. Soon thereafter, theater was offered as a course and this curriculum has expanded greatly since then.
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Famous quotes containing the words performing arts, visual, performing and/or arts:
“More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.”
—Uta Hagen (b. 1919)
“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)
“And no one, it seemed, had had the presence of mind
To initiate proceedings or stop the wheel
From the number it was backing away from as it stopped:
It was performing prettily; the puncture stayed unseen....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure—if you don’t like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don’t like it, you don’t understand and you ought to find out.”
—John Drummond (b. 1934)