The transition has proved difficult for tactile classes like orchestra and ceramics.

By Brooke Wu ’23

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic still far from our reach, Cary Academy has been continuing to adjust certain aspects of its pedagogy for this new virtual school year. As a majority of the art courses offered by Cary Academy typically involve tactile methods of learning, CA has had to alter student art projects significantly from previous years.

One primary example is orchestra; as student Maddie Lineberger (’23) observes, “It’s kind of weird not being together, but we’re still learning how to play music so it’s not horrible.” Another orchestra student, Joshua Kendall (’23), explains: “Mr. Qiao is going to have us record individual parts for us and he’ll mix them together to create a virtual orchestra. If we were playing in person, it would be incredibly easy to all play together, which is why in-person orchestra is much more efficient. Even though I prefer in-person orchestra, virtual orchestra isn’t all that bad.” While amends have certainly been made to orchestra class, the fun and the learning experience of the class fortunately have not been compromised.

However, there are still classes that function nearly identically to their pre-pandemic operations, with one instance being 3D animation. Student Lynne Reed (’23) says, “We normally just call and [Ms. MacDonald] walks us through different activities since we are using a new program. We are using Unity and we submit our assignments by taking screenshots of our work and putting them in OneNote.” As they submit their projects online, 3D animation has not gone through as many changes as Orchestra has for this virtual school year. The digital imaging class and the 3D animation course have similar virtual pedagogy; student Lily Bastin (’23) talks about her experiences in digital imaging: “I am really liking the projects that we have been doing so far. For example, we did a project in Photoshop where we had to spell our names out from objects that we found in our house, and then use Photoshop to edit it. I think that using Photoshop to turn everyday things into nice looking projects is super fun!”

While there are still art classes that function nearly the same virtually as they do in a physical classroom, such as orchestra, 3D animation, and digital imaging, courses that require students to utilize physical materials are a different story.

The Art & Design course for 9th graders went through a few changes to become accustomed to the virtual learning curriculum during the 3rd trimester of last year when COVID-19 started to spread rapidly in the United States. For example, students were expected to use materials that are typically present in households with children, such as construction paper, paper clips, colored pencils, markers, etc. Art & Design students previously worked with circuits, which were more probable to only be available from the Cary Academy campus. However, this did not limit the creativity of the students, as many interesting and innovative projects that they produced and presented to others through Flipgrid, a video-sharing platform catered to classrooms that has enjoyed newfound success through the pandemic alongside Zoom.

Additionally, a new type of art project was presented to students in Art & Design: creating art out of nature. Since everyone had access to nature in one way or another, directing CA students to utilize it for art was a great idea on behalf of CA’s art teachers. While It may be difficult to imagine how art could possibly be created from sticks, leaves, dandelions, and the likes, art can be made from materials as simplistic and unpredictable as a banana and duct tape. Furthermore, art made from nature has been a popular art style since the 1960s, and many notable modern artists (i.e. Wenqing Yan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Damien Hirst) draw much inspiration from the Earth and its beauty. Perhaps these art projects, initially meant as an attempt to replace regular art projects, can serve to refresh our minds and bring a new perspective about what is truly “art”. One of the beauties of abstract art is its ability to make us question the standards of society and go beyond the mindset of reality.

According to CA Weekly, Upper School art students who are taking courses such as Ceramics (which would be difficult to do at home) will be able to go to campus and create during Flex Days. Perhaps ceramics courses can serve as beacons of hope for those who were hoping to take tactile art classes and alleviate worry about classes such as Ceramics being cancelled due to the Coronavirus.