Visual Arts
Young visual artists learn creative processes and techniques from established artists.
Animation | Ceramics | Drawing | Game Art | Graphic Design & Digital Illustration | Industrial Design | Metals & Jewelry| Painting | Photography | Printmaking | Sculpture
Overview
In the Residential High School Visual Arts program, students gain new technical skills in artistic crafts and traditions while also learning critical thinking, ideation and brainstorming, and conceptual development for their artwork.
In an environment centered around respect, hard work, creativity, and connection, this program offers the chance to explore various mediums and techniques under the guidance of experienced and practicing teaching artists. Students also learn about and gain valuable perspectives on the arts as a career.
This nurturing environment helps students discover their unique style, artistic voice and potential career path.
Students also gain practical experience preparing portfolios, exhibiting their work in regional and national shows, and participating in local and national competitions. During their senior year, students complete an art concentration project. They propose their own concepts for a body of work that they create under the direction of a faculty concentration mentor.
What to Expect
Junior Year
The first semester of the Visual Arts Program includes foundational classes in 2D Design, 3D Design, Drawing, Graphic Design, Motion Design, and Visual Language.
This program is meant meet all students where they are, regardless of any past training or lack there of, and equip them with the skills to thrive as artists. They will master basic artistic principles though assignments that challenge them reconstruct 3-D objects using only wire, illustrate different concepts through line alone, create a stop-motion short using only scraps of paper and more. They'll also gain technical proficiency with digital and traditional tools of each studio area while building the analytical skills and artistic vocabulary necessary to engage with art from the contemporary period and beyond.
Students must also attend supervised evening Open Studio time for additional help on projects. Once trained in all the equipment in each studio, students are able to utilize those tools after hours.
The second semester has students apply the foundational concepts they learned in the fall to every discipline offered in the Visual Arts Department. Each student takes a semester of Drawing, Sculpture, Painting and Career Preparation (a seminar-based course that leads students through the process of researching careers, schools, scholarship opportunities, and more as they develop a resume, curriculum vitae, and other materials to support them after graduation). They also take nine weeks of Ceramics, Metals, Printmaking, and Photography. Open Studio is again required multiple times a week.
Senior Year
The Visual Arts Curriculum in the third semester (the first semester of the senior year) gives students the opportunity to choose their courses, as they have been introduced to all the various studios. Each of these courses is a semester long. Students choose one core studio course between Animation, Painting, or Sculpture. Students choose their second class between Printmaking, Photography, and Graphic Design. Their third course comes from a selection between Ceramics, Metals, or Industrial Design. All students take Drawing, Themes of Contemporary Art and Portfolio Preparation, and Art History. Open Studio is available and used as needed or may be required based on studio progress and faculty discretion.
For the final semester, the students all take Research Methods for the Artist and select a studio for their Concentration. For their Concentration, students must conceptualize and execute a body of work under the direction of a concentration mentor. These concentrations are proposed prior to the start of the spring semester. Students also continue to take Art History and a semester-long Drawing class.
Students also take a required elective. Elective options change from time to time, but are typically Graphic Design, Printmaking, Photography, Ceramics, Metals, or Game Art.
Additionally, the department has previously offered optional electives such as Digital Sculpting. These are offered in the Spring. Open Studios may be needed, but students are to check with their instructors.
Opportunities
- Professional-Level Arts Studios: Students work in state-of-the-art, professional studios that have all of the hands-on resources and updated technology they need to prepare them for a career in the arts. Examples include Creality CR-10 Smart Pro 3D Printers, Wacom Cintiq Pro 17 tablets in the Graphic Design and Animation Studios, a 3D Potterbot ceramic printer in the Ceramics Studio, a classic dark room in the Photography Studio, and Glowforge Pro Laser Printers in the Printmaking Studio. The department also has a foundry for metals and sculpture work.
- Guest Artist Master Classes and Artist Talks: Several times a semester, students have the opportunity to take master classes and attend artist talks with renowned guest artists that complement their training with new techniques and a variety of artistic perspectives and career backgrounds.
- Exhibitions: Each semester, students exhibit their work in the Lipscomb Gallery on campus for the mid-year, end-of-year and senior drawing exhibitions. These exhibitions are open to the public.
- Competitions: Students can choose to participate in annual competitions or exhibitions including Artfields Jr., the National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition, National Scholastic Art Awards, YoungArts, Reedy Reels, the Converse Emerging Young Artists Exhibition, the Annual Upstate High School Art Exhibition, and others.
- National Portfolio Day: Every year, seniors travel to a National Portfolio Day event where some of the country's top post-secondary art institutions gather together and give students the opportunity to meet with counselors, admissions representatives, and faculty for a free portfolio review.
- Museum & Gallery Field Trips: The Governor's School's location in downtown Greenville often gives our students the opportunity to attend art exhibitions at the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Arts Council, Greenville Tech, and more. Each spring, the Visual Arts Department also travels to nationally-renowned art museums like the Mint Museum in Charlotte and the High Museum in Atlanta.
Achievements
- In the 2024 National Scholastic Art Awards, students won 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal. In the Region-At-Large competition, students won a total of 82 awards, including 15 Gold Keys, 29 Silver Keys, and 38 honorable mentions (3 of which were for art portfolios).
- The 2024 National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition accepted pieces from 7 Visual Arts students who brought home over $250,000 in scholarships awarded for their work.
- Animations by 14 Visual Arts students were accepted and screened by the 2024 Reedy Reels Film Festival. Three of those students were named finalists in the Best Animation Category.
- A student won 1st Place and another received an honorable mention in the 2024 Artfields, Jr. exhibition, which accepted work from 6 Visual Arts students.
- 9 Visual Arts students received cash awards across seven categories at the 2024 Annual Upstate Highschool Art Exhibition hosted by Greenville Tech.
- Visual Arts graduates have gone on to pursue arts degrees the nation's top colleges and universities including Clemson University, Furman University, the Cooper Union, the California Institute of the Arts, the Kansas Arts Institute, Parsons School of Design, Ringling College of Art & Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and UNC School of the Arts.
View the Visual Arts Student Gallery!
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Curriculum
Junior Semester 1
Junior Semester 2
Senior Semester 1
• Honors Drawing III
• Honors Contemporary Arts Theory & Portfolio Preparation
• AP or Honors Art History
Seniors will choose one (1) of the following:
• Honors Animation II
• Honors Painting II
• Honors Sculpture II
Seniors will choose one (1) of the following:
• Honors Graphic Design II
• Honors Printmaking II
• Honors Photography II
Seniors will choose one (1) of the following:
• Honors Industrial Design I (only offered in the Fall)
• Honors Ceramics II
• Honors Metals II