At King School, our students are exposed to many forms of creative expression and encouraged to pursue an artistic passion or discover a new one.
King’s Performing Arts program, which includes theater arts, music, and dance, offers students the opportunity to make personal and cultural discoveries by participating in a creative, disciplined and collaborative process. Through a structured communal process, students develop self-confidence, perseverance, imagination, reflective thinking, and intuition.
The Art and Design program at King School stresses the importance of original creative thinking and personal artistic expression. Students learn to use a wide range of art media, techniques, and design concepts through assignments that are age appropriate and challenging. A wide variety of traditional art classes are offered as well as digital media, including photography, animation, and filmmaking. Each class culminates in an OPEN project , which stands for Original, Personal, Experienced, and Novel. Students independently apply their learning by creating an original project of personal significance, becoming experienced through practice while exploring novel ideas and applications.
King’s stunning state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center (PAC) plus multiple art studios across campus offer tremendous support for students' creative pursuits. The lobby of the (PAC) doubles as extraordinary exhibition space for students, professional artists, and alumni. The Lower School Makerspace and the Middle and Upper School Innovation Lab provide additional opportunities for students to design solutions to real world problems.
King hosted its sixth annual El Sistema Residency, in which talented musicians from King's Middle and Upper Schools collaborated in intensive music workshops with visiting students of various El Sistema USA programs, including Stamford's own Project Music.
The residency's overarching focus is to inspire a deeper connection between communities of different socioeconomic backgrounds by using music as a vehicle to give voice to diverse cultural identities and amplify lived experiences.
The Parents’ Association Visual Arts Committee and Art and Design Department are pleased to announce the first outdoor sculpture installation on campus. Five brightly colored and wind-activated kinetic sculptures by Drew Klotz are on display in different locations around campus until mid-June. Klotz combines elements of physics, engineering, geometry, and design when creating his sculptures.
Four King students were selected to participate in the All-State Musical Festival hosted by the Connecticut Music Education Association from April 23-25, 2021. The selection process is highly competitive and involves preliminary qualification through the organization's Western Regional auditions before becoming eligible for All-State.
"I'm impressed by the students' creativity, maturity, and thoughtfulness in tackling the show's themes. They are successfully bringing to life the challenging and sometimes frightening aspects confronting adolescents," said Mark Silence, the show's director.
Grade 6 student Alicia Leng and grade 8 student Olivia Asnes love to sing, but they also enjoy that choir includes non-singing activities. We also "learn how to read notes, find out if you are singing the correct pitch, and learn how music can impact the world," says Olivia.
How do I express who I am through art? King students in grades 4 and 5 confront this challenge, developing self-expression as well as technical drawing skills. Art and Design Faculty Debbie DePouli reflects that "with the turmoil and uncertainty of our current times, the art studio is a place for students to hone their creativity, while having a safe outlet to process their experiences and emotions."
