Elevating the Fine Arts at Summit

Great Hearts Arizona held its annual Summit today, where faculty and staff come together for a kind of ‘homecoming’ to kick off the new school year. Just under 2,000 staff members from academies, online, and home office were in attendance and the room was full of laughter and the buzz of conversations as colleagues reunited before the program began. For some, it was the first time they had been together since the May. Even the school mascots joined in the celebration as Superintendent Brandon Crowe took an energetic ‘roll call’ for each academy and department represented. Crowe said, “The Summit is a great time to remind ourselves of our collective and shared calling.”

The theme of this year’s Summit revolved around the fine arts, which include music, art, poetry, and drama. The invitation sent to staff stated, “Just as we ask our students to bravely stretch themselves in the classroom, we too must work to move past any angst or uneasiness we hold about creating.” Fine arts are fundamental to the Great Hearts education, where students will experience art in some form every day. Something that has become increasingly uncommon as we see fine arts being removed from the curriculum in schools.

In that spirit, Great Hearts hosted a visual arts competition where they invited staff to submit artwork that would reflect the theme. The winner was Anais Wolpert, an art teacher at Maryvale Prep. Her winning submission was prominently featured on the swag given out to attendees.

Professor Carol Reynolds delivered the keynote speech on why many in today’s culture are apprehensive about engaging in creating or performing, especially publicly. Reynolds is a musicologist, pianist, and author specializing in Russian, East European, and German cultural history. “The excuse we make as adults is that we can’t sing. Adults are the only ones who say they can’t sing,” she told the audience. “You will never hear a toddler say they can’t sing. If you can speak, you can sing.”

Neil Gillingham, headmaster at Archway Arete, emceed the workshop where Brighton Demerest-Smith led the faculty in a thoughtful and comprehensive drawing lesson, where our teachers had the opportunity to practice drawing exercises. “Drawing is not all that complicated. It is rather simple when we see things in relationship to simple shapes,” he said to ease the minds of those who were following along with a bit a trepidation. Mr. Demerest-Smith has been a teacher with Great Hearts for 10 years. He is the Master Fine Arts teacher at Cicero Prep, where he teaches Studio Art courses and coaches teachers from the Great Hearts network in the philosophical and technical approaches to teaching in a Great Hearts classroom.

Attendees returned to the auditorium after lunch and were met with a spirited choral performance composed of more than 30 faculty members and led by Cicero Prep music teacher, Elliot Liles.  The Summit concluded with a heartfelt exhortation from Archway Chandler music teacher, Penelope Carpenter. Carpenter was the first Archway music teacher in the Great Hearts network and played a significant role in creating the elementary music curriculum that is taught today in multiple states. She encouraged the faculty to use music to reach their students in virtually any subject they teach “The pleasure of the arts promotes acquisition of a skill, and the acquisitions of further skills,” she said. She warned that the arts are not superfluous or unnecessary, but integral and primary to our pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

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