Visual & Digital Arts
Fine Arts
The Fine Arts Program features a studio-based curriculum, with hands-on studio assignments supplemented by a broad introduction to art history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics. Students may choose to study across a variety of studio arts disciplines, and display their work in the School’s Gallery Space.
All Fine Arts faculty members are practicing artists who instruct in their own areas of expertise as well as create their own work throughout the school year. Practicing their art while teaching it, faculty members cultivate a community of creation within the Fine Arts studios.
2D Character Design
Digital Media students at LIHSA use Web-based tools and materials as the primary means of communication and expression. In addition to an understanding of current workplace practice, this career pathway requires the development of knowledge and skills in both visual art concepts as well as new and emerging digital processes by which individuals are able to create and communicate complex concepts in a broad range of occupations and professions.
LIHSA’s Digital Media program provides a rigorous and intellectually-challenging training in the tools, applications and possibilities of the digital environment from the preparation of multimedia content to its effective display and dissemination. Our students develop a broad understanding of multimedia and Internet-based technologies in order to develop expertise in creating the type of digital content that is widely in demand.
Digital Imaging
LIHSA’s Digital Media program provides a rigorous and intellectually-challenging training in the tools, applications and possibilities of the digital environment from the preparation of multimedia content to its effective display and dissemination. Our students develop a broad understanding of multimedia and Internet-based technologies in order to develop expertise in creating the type of digital content that is widely in demand.
My time at LIHSA was among the most challenging I’ve experiences and one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever accomplished.
Program Requirements
All students accepted in the Visual & Digital Arts program are required to take 3.0 core credits over the course of 2 years. Students in all three program strands will complete an additional .5 credits in Career and Financial Management coursework, a requirement of a CTE program. Beyond the required core, students select to take 4.5 additional credits in Fine Art or Digital Media, with different semester offerings each year.
Digital Imaging
This course introduces digital art image making, editing and design techniques as a foundation upon which an effective visual language is built. Beginning with an investigation of the elements and principles of design, students will discover a broad range of visual ideas, concepts and techniques to use in creating images. Expressing, evaluating and communicating ideas with visual images is a primary focus of this course. During the semester, students will use imaging and design software consistent with the visual professions as a beginning step towards professional-standard computer proficiency.
Objects and Visual Meaning
Students will begin the semester by looking into the idea of meaning in everyday objects; building understandings and analyses of the ways in which meanings are assigned and associated. This will include an exploration of both analog and digital platforms and the expectations assumed or produced by each. Through these modes of inquiry, the class will focus on the how and why of making things.
Careers in the Arts
Students in this course will engage in an exploration of options available to artists after high school, matching industry requirements with pathways, including, college admissions and cost associated with it. Students will complete portfolios, engage in mock interviewing and develop resume related material. Students will also research related trends in the creative arts sector, types of jobs available and professional organizations affiliated with different sectors. Traits that are valuable for artists to possess will explored and students will learn about advocacy and networking in the professional arts world.
Activism and Art-Making
This class explores the relationship between art and activism. Through case studies, slides, videos, readings and discussions, students will situate art in a historical and political context. Emphasis will be on these recurrent issues: the relationship between aesthetics and politics, conceptions of community and the public, and the practical aims of art, both intended and actual. Students will then move on to question how this might inform their own art practice. A major component of the course will be a project that students plan and execute during the semester. Choice of practice and medium will be open, but possibilities might include work that is performative, visual, or conceptual, employing photography and/or digital media, text, film, painting, or sculpture.