Updated: July 10, 2008

The Principal's Newsletter, January 2009

The Integrated Arts Council (IAC) organized a showcase to end all showcases! The theme was: A Night with Paper—there was standing room only! Thanks to the families and friends of our kids who come out to support our Arts students! The Visual Arts Board (VAB) outdid themselves in demonstrating excellent works of Origami – swans, cartoon characters, flowers, bouquets and, over ONE THOUSAND paper cranes! In addition, many animation clips were shared from the talents of the Media Arts discipline, as well as the design of the invitations for our wonderful night. Further, the Drama in Community and Education (DICE) ensemble of actors gave a satirical performance depicting the "social-norms of typical high school experiences" (just to name a few excellent performances of monologues and original works by our very own SLSS–Drama scriptwriters and actors)! The Music Lynx Leadership Council (MLLC), along with over 80 other musicians, entertained the crowd with a myriad of pieces, and ensembles, representing many different cultures and historical time periods! Lastly, the SLSS-Dance Cru added even more excitement to the evening with their medley of Bollywood, Bhangra, Hip-Hop and Breakdancing! Most importantly, our department decided to continue to support the Eden Food Bank by collecting boxes upon boxes of food. Our social justice theme is alive and well in SLSS–ARTS via excellence, community and respect!

Our students, within the arts disciplines, are hard at work:

DANCE
Thanks to everyone who came out to watch our first performance! Both the Hip-Hop, Bollywood, and Breakdance numbers were a treat to perform and we are already planning our routines for the upcoming Spring Arts Awards Night! In the Spring, we will be performing routines consisting of Hip-Hop, Bollywood, Contemporary and Break dancing! Each number will be completed, choreographed and costumed! Our theme is yet to be determined, but the choreographers, as well as the club members, will be voting on one soon! The Dance Club hopes to hold a free dance workshop open to all students attending SLSS. Planning for this will begin shortly and will run based on enrolment. This workshop aims to introduce the students of SLSS to the benefits of dance.

DRAMA
The Drama students have been hard at work this year. Two students have submitted plays to the festival of new student work, studentwrights, hosted by Meadowvale Secondary School in November. Both casts did an excellent job with the material they were given and the students were given useful feedback by the professional adjudicator to help them improve their writing. Also in November, DICE (Drama in Community and Education) created, and performed, a moving piece for SLSS’s Remembrance Day assembly. This piece helped students and staff remember those who fought for our freedom, and why we stop to remember every November 11th. Currently we are working on this year’s submission for the Sears Drama Festival. Several students wrote and submitted scripts for this annual competition. A Gypsy’s Tale, about the persecution of gypsies in Romania, was selected. The student director and assistant director are busy working with the cast to prepare for our performance date at the end of February.

MEDIA ARTS
Students in Media Arts have explored a wide range of media as they developed technical skills in digital photography, illustration, animation, and video. Through each of our units we have explored the broad theme of Seeing ; looking to encourage more critical thought and awareness of our increasingly visually cluttered culture.

In photography, students used multiple exposure techniques to look at commonly used spaces in and around the school, and examine our assumptions about how these spaces are used.

In illustration, students critically examined who they are from the point of view of others, and from their own point of view as they created a new hairstyle that incorporated symbols of their identity. For the animation, learning the basics of Flash was the biggest challenge, but students were very creative in creating small situations that could be looked at through something (i.e. What would you see in your neighbour's yard when you looked through a hole in the fence? What would you see if you looked through a keyhole?) The last unit challenged students technically and conceptually as they created a video that explored notions of secretive looking in relationship to ableism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism, faithism, classism or racism. We look forward to previewing these short videos at the upcoming Walk the Art exhibition at the Living Arts Centre second semester, and at our spring Arts Night.

MUSIC (Music Webpage)
The music students are well on their way toward music excellence via leadership, followership and overall teamwork. This past semester, the students have continued their studies in instrumental performance in a variety of ensemble opportunities: Brass Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, Jazz Band, Saxophone Ensemble, and two concert bands! Watch out for the continuation of Guitar Ensemble and World Drumming Ensemble to the many opportunities offered to SLSS students! Furthermore, The World Drumming ensemble has booked two performances: Elementary Teachers' Federation Equity Conference, and Parenting and Family Literacy Centres (PDSB) for the Spring of '09. Furthermore, the Grade 9s in the Experienced Instrumental class have come a long way in demonstrating their achievement of performing difficult B300 repertoire! The Junior Band did a great job at their initial public performance as The Junior Lynx Wind Band (Grades 9 and 10) at our Winter Arts Night! Lastly, Both Junior and Senior Lynx Wind Bands are looking forward to performing at the Golden Horseshoe Musicfest Provincial Competition and the Wonderland Music Festival; of course all the ensembles are excited to perform at the Spring Arts Awards Night in May 2009!

PHOTOGRAPHY
The students were introduced to the techniques of film photography, creating images that did not use a conventional camera by creating pinhole images, photo-grams, and inventive negatives. After learning the fundamentals of film and digital photography the students went on to create images on the themes of myth and beauty, truth and advertising, as well as the importance of the “gaze”. For their final project, the students are working on a series that will illustrate a “decisive moment” in time.

VISUAL ARTS
Over the last semester, the Grade 10 visual arts course has been on a journey of self-discovery. In their sculptural unit, inspired by the work of Canadian artist Judy Chicago, students created a place setting that represented someone that they found motivating and inspirational. In their collage unit students learned how to analyze media imagery and created a piece of work on a social or political issue that they felt passionate about. After studying medieval art, students created their own illuminated manuscript covers, using colour and intricate ink work to give definition to the patterns and symbols they created to represent themselves. The students are currently working on etchings that will illustrate images from their dreams, allowing them to discover more about themselves by looking in to their subconscious.

Many of our drama students in DICE and in drama classes participated in our Winter Arts Night and Spring Awards Night performing voice dubbing, movement to music, monologues and role-playing.

Overall, we had a very successful year and look forward to more opportunities to showcase our talents next year!

The Arts are about creativity, problem-solving, independent and group work, critical thinking, and leadership. Visual Arts curriculum focuses on the creation and deconstruction of visual imagery; imagery that expresses our experiences and beliefs of our world and our creative desires.

Here at Stephen Lewis, we offer traditional visual arts, non-traditional media arts and photography. In future, we hope to offer additional specialty courses such as animation and design.

Thank you for visiting the Arts pages on the Stephen Lewis website. We hope you find them enjoyable and informative.

Why Arts?
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now." Here is the link.

About The Arts

The Arts are an integral part of our society; look at the rich history of art, dance, drama, and music that every culture is built on. We believe the Arts are not an add-on to be taken only when time allows, but instead are just as necessary for the future doctor, lawyer and engineer as they are for the future artist, music chart-topper and blockbuster actor. It is our hope that the Art web pages will explain why.

As a revered part of our curriculum and education system, the Arts are fully supported at Stephen Lewis Secondary School through the offering of Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts programming. Youth who participate in the arts through high school are often regarded as having a full, comprehensive education and bring skill sets not available from the traditional core courses.

Advertising, web design, art galleries, film and theatre productions, music videos, the music on our iPods and our favourite television shows exist directly from our love of The Arts. Every student in the Ontario education system is a required to take a minimum of one Arts credit. This can be a confusing choice for youth as they may have more than one interest in the arts or they may not be entirely sure where their interests yet lie. These Art web pages are designed to help with those choices.

While all of our programs encourage critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and creative exploration, the way each discipline investigates these skill sets are different. Students are encouraged to follow their passions while continuing to challenge themselves in various areas. The Art web pages will outline pathways from junior to senior courses, provide course outlines for each of our discipline areas, show career possibilities from the study of our disciplines, as well as answer some of our most frequently asked questions by parents and students. Of course our phones are always open and any questions you may have regarding the arts and their benefits are always welcome.