Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School Blog: Take Charge

On Wednesday, February 12th, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School opened the doors to their new Visual & Performing Arts Center. The $5.5M project has transformed a historic 19th-century Waltham barn into a 22,000 square foot, cutting edge center for the arts.

In the spring of 2016, the Visual and Performing Art (VPA) department launched the “Campus as Canvas” program at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School. The concept behind the program was to find ways to use the School’s campus to help facilitate learning, beautify the campus, and show the diverse culture that CH-CH fosters. The Campus as Canvas program is meant to demonstrate the School’s support of the arts through enhancing and expanding the visual art spaces on campus. With three installations complete, CH-CH is excited to begin work on the fourth with the esteemed local metal fabricator and artist, Alaina Mahoney.

Rapid change, complexity, and social divisiveness mark the world today. How will we survive tomorrow? Will we be able to sustain the human values that we cherish - kindness, courage, empathy? What is the role of schools in this moment? Educational leaders are faced with a central dilemma; how and what do you teach in the context of continuing change, with facts and ideas that become obsolete in the moment, and careers and work areas that have not yet been imagined? And how does a school like CH-CH respond to these challenges?

Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall graduates have had their creative fires stoked in every class – not just the art and music classes – and they’re taking what they learned and applying it to careers, both creative and traditional. We asked five alums to explain how they’re creative, where their inspiration comes from, and the role that CH-CH played in helping them become creatives. 

Art-making in the 21st century is challenging, rewarding, and maddening, all at once. To succeed as an artist in the 21st century, you must be well-versed in technology, oral and written communication, art history, politics, and of course, your medium. Whether it’s as a performer or a visual artist, being creative is multi-faceted.