Officially an artist

    As you walk into one of the 11 IB Visual Arts classes at AHS, you experiences a silence in which only a pen, pencil, and a mouse-click can be heard.

    Such an environment is characteristic of the discipline Art students exercise.  “An IB [Arts] student is expected to behave in a fashion of a professional artist,” said Ann Harper, the IB Arts teacher.  Students who take these classes are part of the rigorous IB Arts program at AHS.  They are evaluated on their personal vision and technical skills.  “Students need to come in with an idea of what they want to visually express,” Said Harper. “ Just as you would have a writer writing about what he or she knows, the artist really ought to create a visual image about what he or she knows.”

    In order to achieve such a professional standard, students have to be very responsible in their actions and work while they are in the classroom.  “The most important thing to know is that they have to be self-disciplined,” Harper said, “If they have the self-discipline and they have the passion for what they do they will do very well.”

    “Most people don’t know how much work artists do preliminarily, there is a lot of research and technical experimentation,” said Harper.

    As with other IB classes, Arts has its own requirements students must fulfill in order to be part of the program.  Students have to be a junior with Art 1 and Art 2 as a prerequisite.  “I would like to see students come in with Art 1 and Art 2,” said Harper, “Then if they want to do higher-level they can join IB Arts in their junior year and continue through their senior year.  If they want to do standard level they can pick one year for that.”

    Being an IB arts student means participating in rigorous art-related activities.  IB Arts students have their own workbook in which they can put different kinds of researched artwork.  

    “First you choose a theme.  With your artwork around that theme you make a work-book, then you research different artists that have similar views as you,” said junior Kyle Mills, IB Visual Arts student.

    Mills is currently is working on making a web site for himself, integrating his artwork into a three-dimensional structure, and trying to improve his researching skills.  Mostly he works on a computer as his work is based on computer graphics.  “I plan to major in architecture, and maybe minor in arts.” said Mills.  “In the future I might do professional art.”

    When students join IB Arts class, they have to visit different art galleries and develop their ideas by integrating what they observed.  There is at least one gallery visit in each quarter, which is done independently.

    Harper is optimistic about her IB Arts students this year, and she believes that they have brought something new to the table.

    “This year the juniors are especially amazing,” said Harper, complimenting her class. “They are the beginning Higher-level students and I know they are going to end up doing exactly what they want to do.”  She believes that students who plan to prosper through Arts should take this class.
“Artists are not starving artists anymore,” Harper said.  “Everything is based on arts in some fashion and we have a lot of opportunities.”  

    In April, the AHS community will get to view the finished work of each student artist.  This is a major event in the Arts Department, and takes place in Clausen Hall.  This is an open event for everyone who wants to appreciate what the student artists have to give back to the school community.

    “We’re going to have a show, coming up, of some of the pages in the IB work book or research book,” Harper said.  Harper plans to enlarge these pages in color print with a picture of each artist and artist statement.  “The purpose of this display is to show the audience what the research is about and what the student’s interests are,” Harper said. “It is kind of peeking behind the curtain of how an artist works.”

    As for now, arts students are preparing for IB tests.  “Right now we are gearing up and getting ready for the April Moderations,” Harper said.  In the IB Arts program at the end of two years for higher level, or one for standard level, an outside artist is hired to evaluate the student’s studio work and the research book.  The grading scale is similar to other IB disciplines, which is based on a zero to seven scale (seven being the highest).

    “We want at least a three or four,” Harper said, “most of our students are in the six to seven scale, and they do very well.”  The outside artist evaluates these works, and compares them with artists around the world.  “It is a global situation right now, with computers everyone knows what everybody else is doing,” said Harper.

    “The IB classes are the most exciting that we have in the department,” said Harper, “If you want to do anything above and beyond and really work at it, this is the place to be.”