Visual Arts

Office Location: UA23

K-12 Coordinator

Donna Sartanowicz

Phone: 617-713-5298

Secretary

Martina Hughes
Phone: 617-713-5295
Office: UA23

Follow us: @bhsartspace

Explore student artwork and creative projects featured in the Brookline High School Visual Arts program.

Visit Blue Lab Productions to view exhibitions, student showcases, and visual arts media.

In Brookline, we believe that the visual arts provide a unique and necessary understanding of civilization, develop creativity and problem-solving skills, provide tools for verbal and nonverbal communication of ideas, and develop the capacity in students to make wise and informed choices about our aesthetic and material culture. 

We believe that the making of art is of benefit to all students and that all students have within them the capacity to think and work creatively. The visual arts offer unique opportunities for self-expression and collaboration that support students in their social and emotional growth with projects that explore self-awareness and identity, as well as processes that encourage self-management and responsible decision-making.  Students develop the ability to analyze, interpret, and evaluate their own decisions regarding their own artwork and the work of others.  Critique and collaboration opportunities allow students to practice social awareness, relationship skills, and empathy as they actively support the growth and learning of all members of the creative community in the studio.

We believe that the art program in Brookline can and does support students in becoming confident, capable,  lifelong learners and makers. In well-equipped and purpose-designed studios, we ground our teaching in extensive,  first-hand knowledge and experience of materials, processes, and ongoing artistic practice. We believe in challenging students to develop curiosity, flexible thinking, and their unique artistic voice. We support their developing confidence by teaching them the material fluency, design thinking, and technical skills required to create visual work. 

We believe it is important that students moving through our program understand the value of working artistically for their own well-being; for developing a creative approach to life; and for understanding the vital role that artists and designers play in our culture, showing us who we are and what we value as individuals and as a society. The art program’s mission is to provide all students with continuous, sequential, and richly varied study in the visual arts, which simultaneously reveals the joy of aesthetic expression, the satisfying hard work of craftsmanship, and the necessity of art within the complete human experience.