Deep engagement with the visual arts is a critically important aspect of the Princeton Friends School experience. Including studio art for all grades, graphic design for 7th and 8th grade students, and a variety of arts elective classes offered for 3rd-8th grades, the PFS art program engages students’ natural curiosity and imagination, offering time, space, and resources for individual exploration. Freed from rigid expectations of outcome, students are supported in becoming comfortable with self-expression and being thoughtful yet playful, well-informed yet inventive.
Through exposure to a variety of media and techniques, knowledge of artistic movements and styles, and each student’s personal engagement in the artistic process, studio art aims to empower students to appreciate art as a human response to human experience, an integral part of our humanity and our cultural history; approach art of all kinds with openness, respect, and curiosity; feel competent and confident in the processes of making art in a wide variety of media; and draw connections between art and other academic disciplines and human endeavors. Two arts festivals during the year offer students opportunities to formally showcase their work.