Studio Art Program
Students at every stage of development love to create. Our Fine Arts programs’ primary goal is for students to acquire the requisite skills and knowledge they need in order to explore artistic expression using as many mediums as possible. All of our full-day students attend studio art classes every week for an hour or more, depending on grade level.
History and Technique
MMS Art students are immersed in the culture of Art History as well as technique. Lessons provide historical context for particular movements and styles as well as the execution of the accompanying techniques, with projects gradually building in complexity from one grade to the next. It is not enough to just learn how to create collages in the style of Henri Matisse or paint self-portraits in the style of Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, or Roy Lichtenstein. Students must also learn what circumstances led those artists to reflect upon their lives and worlds in such distinct ways. “Art reflects change,” says art educators Karen Gorecki and Ian Anastas, each a veteran artist in their own right.
More Than the Basics
Out studio arts program covers several artistic techniques over the course of a student's MMS career. From an early age, students learn traditional drawing and observation skills by using pencil, charcoal, watercolors, and acrylics. Ceramic arts are taught using terracotta and white stoneware clay, using glaze for effect. They learn techniques you wouldn't expect to find in an elementary school such as copper tooling, enameling, silk screening, and printmaking. Students are taught many ways to make art with their hands like weaving, stitching, fiber coiling for basketry, paper quilling, and even batik. They create sculptures using various traditional and non-traditional materials such as duct tape, paper mache, foil, plaster, and wire armature. As they get older, students also receive vigorous lessons in photography, graphic design, digital art, video editing, 3D modeling, and animation.
Awards
MMS students win a multitude of local and statewide awards every year for their artwork. Our students also have permanent collections on display at the Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Courts in Milwaukee and Madison and have had featured exhibitions at Wisconsin State Fair, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Betty Brinn Children’s Museum.
