My name is Mily James, and my Senior Ventures project this year is titled "Arts in Motion." Arts in Motion is dedicated to engaging a greater audience of Darlington students this year with the arts. As someone deeply involved in all kinds of art at the school, from performing to visual arts, I have always been passionate about fostering creativity and artistic expression among my peers. In my role as the Arts Council president, as I have had a greater opportunity to connect and engage with every student in regards to the arts, I’ve noticed a particular lack of engagement in student-run arts activities, and with my project, I’ve been determined to reconnect students with the many different mediums of art that Darlington has to offer.
The arts at Darlington are divided into three seasons: Discover, Delight, and Design. With the help of Director of Fine Arts Kim Tunnell and the Arts Council, I was able to set up a three-week curriculum dedicated to engaging students with the three mediums of art at school: visual, performing, and communication arts. Setting time aside during office hours and advisory periods allowed for many students to participate in activities they would have never thought possible.
In a final culmination of the Discover season, Nov. 15 of this year was our Discover Day, where students signed up for faculty taught arts classes that had a wide array of projects, discovering a new interest they might have in the arts. After that, students had the opportunity to show off their performing arts skills by presenting their talents to their peers in a student-run showcase. This day was incredibly successful and encouraging to all students who participated.
This winter and spring will be our Design and Delight seasons, which will focus on student visual and communication arts. The Arts Council and I will work together to plan and delegate student events to keep excitement continuous throughout the next semester. With large events coming up like the Winter Musical and Light the Lake, I hope to provide a service to all students involved by promoting everyone’s hard work. These next two seasons will involve decorating more advanced artists in comparison with the Discover season, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out!!
Here is a link to our Instgram!
Senior Ventures is a year-long academic program built on a framework of leadership, innovation and community engagement. Through a proven self-guided exploratory process, seniors whose proposals are selected for this program work independently to develop a project that’s interdisciplinary in scope and is connective, performance-based, investigative, or entrepreneurial. Click here to learn more.
