Diggin’ in the Catalogue: A Look Into the Arts Concentration Program

Picture this.

It's a calm, quiet afternoon, and a prospective parent or student is perusing the Choate website, looking to get a feel for the School and its culture. They go from the About page to the Admissions page to the Academics page and then stumble upon the Arts page, where they're greeted with the following message.

"Our mission is to nurture the creativity inherent in all. We promote courageous exploration, self-awareness, and cultural fluency through a collaborative approach that allows each student to discover their unique creative voice. We believe all students must have the opportunity to develop a clear understanding of how the arts impact their lives in personal, social, economic, and cultural contexts. We believe that the arts engage the whole person – the intellect, heart, and the body. The arts allow for essential connections – to the individual, community, and the world."

Whether you're reviewing a company's website before a job interview or looking at a college or university's website while writing an admissions essay, we've all seen a mission statement before. They matter because they lay out an organization’s purpose and guiding principles. At Choate, the real question is how those words show up in the Arts Department’s day-to-day life. A walk through the Paul Mellon Arts Center or Colony Hall will provide a few answers.

Faculty bring both years of teaching experience and professional experience in the arts, giving students direct access to a wealth of knowledge and unconditional support. Across galleries, studios, rehearsal rooms, performance halls and beyond, students can go all in as members of seasonal productions and musical groups, or they can dabble by way of events like the Choate Student Film Festival or the Fringe Festival. Still, there are few better ways to explore the depths of what the Arts Department has to offer than the Arts Concentration Program.

With distinct tracks for students interested in dance, theater, visual arts, and music, the Arts Concentration Program lets rising fourth, fifth, and sixth formers pursue their artistic and creative passions to the fullest. Through a series of courses, practice, and independent projects, students have the time, space, and support to grow not only as artists, but as well-rounded people.

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Inside Arts Concentration

To see how the program supports young artists, School Manager of Editorial Services Ryan Shepard ’14 spoke with Arts Department Head Matthew McLean.

Ryan Shepard ’14: What qualities do you look for in students who apply to the Arts Concentration Program, and how does the program help them deepen their commitment to their chosen discipline?

Matthew McLean: We’re looking first and foremost for students who have a genuine passion for their art form and a desire to take their work seriously. They don’t necessarily need to arrive at Choate as the most accomplished artist in the room—or even arrive at Choate already knowing that the arts will become an important part of their experience here. Some students come to us with years of training and a clear artistic direction, while others discover a passion after a year or two at Choate, perhaps through one of our electives, an ensemble, a production, or another experience that sparks a desire to dive deeper. We value both paths. What matters is curiosity, commitment, a willingness to work, and an openness to being challenged.

Arts Concentration gives those students the time, mentorship, and community to pursue that passion at a much deeper level. They are able to move beyond simply participating in an art form and begin thinking of themselves as artists—developing their own ideas, making choices, taking creative risks, and learning what it means to sustain a serious artistic practice over time.

RS: Arts Con students devote substantial time each week to studio work, rehearsal, lessons, or production work. How have you seen that sustained practice enhance a student’s artistic development?

MM: There really is no substitute for time spent doing the work. Artistic growth happens through repetition, experimentation, failure, reflection, and then trying again. Arts Con creates space in a student’s week for that process to happen consistently rather than only when they can fit it around everything else.

Over time, you see students develop not only greater technical ability but also greater independence and confidence. They learn to practice or work with intention, diagnose problems, respond to feedback and keep working when the solution isn’t immediately apparent. Those habits are an important part of becoming a mature artist.

RS: The program includes dance, music, theater, studio art, and filmmaking, with opportunities to collaborate across disciplines. What can students learn from creating alongside faculty and fellow student artists who work in different forms?

MM: One of the great strengths of Arts Con is that students are part of a community of artists whose work may look very different from their own. A musician, dancer, filmmaker, actor, and visual artist may use different tools, but they wrestle with many of the same questions: How do I communicate an idea? How do I make an audience feel something? When is a piece finished? How do I respond when something doesn’t work?

Being around artists in other disciplines expands students’ sense of what is possible. They encounter different ways of thinking about structure, space, movement, sound, narrative, and collaboration. Just as importantly, they learn to value artistic perspectives outside their own area of expertise.

Some of my favorite Arts Con moments happen when I see that community come together across disciplines. I love watching a music, theater, or dance student walk into a student art exhibition and seeing the inspiration and excitement that comes from experiencing what their peers have created.

RS: Each Arts Con pathway culminates in a major public-facing project, such as a recital, Senior Exhibit, performance, or original composition. How do those culminating experiences reflect students’ growth over their time at Choate?

MM: The culminating project asks students to bring together everything they have developed over their time in the program. It requires technical skill, certainly, but also independence, perseverance, decision-making, and a sense of artistic identity. By that point, the student is taking much greater ownership of the work.

But that growth doesn’t happen only through the final culminating project. Throughout their time in Arts Con, students are regularly working toward performances, exhibitions, presentations, compositions, films, and other projects each term. Those experiences provide an important scaffolding for the larger culminating work. Students continually make something, share it, receive feedback from faculty mentors and peers, reflect on what they’ve learned, and apply that learning to the next project. Over time, that cycle helps them become increasingly independent and intentional as artists.

RS: How does Arts Con balance technical instruction such as theory, design, composition, or acting with the risk-taking and creative exploration that are essential to making impactful art?

MM: Technique and creativity really aren’t opposing ideas. Technique gives an artist more ways to express what they are trying to say. Whether a student is learning harmony, drawing, choreography, acting technique, cinematography, or design, those skills expand their vocabulary.

Our academic arts electives provide an important setting for students to develop those foundational skills more systematically, with focused instruction in the techniques and concepts of their discipline. Arts Con then gives students more time and space to use those developing skills with greater independence—to pursue their own ideas, experiment, make unexpected choices, and occasionally create something that doesn’t work.

RS: How have you seen Arts Concentration graduates go on and use the skills they've developed in college and beyond?

MM: Some Arts Concentration students go on to conservatories, art schools, film programs, or university arts departments and ultimately pursue careers in the arts. Others choose entirely different academic and professional paths. Both outcomes speak to the program's value.

The habits required to make art seriously transfer remarkably well: learning how to work independently, accepting and applying criticism, collaborating with others, managing a long-term project, persisting through uncertainty, and developing the confidence to put something original into the world. Arts Con students learn that meaningful work usually requires both discipline and imagination. Whether or not they ultimately become professional artists, this combination is incredibly valuable to carry into college and beyond.