Visual Arts at Harvard-Westlake Middle School is a collaborative effort between students and teachers who work together to create, appreciate, and understand.

Here are the policies and procedures that help us work together well.

Habits of Mind

Authenticity, productivity, and good cheer are habits of mind which lead students to success in Middle School Visual Arts.

By applying these virtues, students of all skill and experience levels discover that visual invention, expression, and communication is something that everyone can do well and that all can enjoy.

Set-up and clean-up procedures

A commendable concern for order and craft in the studio-classroom requires initiative, mindfulness, and alacrity as students and teachers work together to build teams and routines for establishing, maintaining, and taking down the various work stations, set-ups, and tools that are necessary for any given art activity on any given day.

Students are expected to understand that practicing productive and co-operative set-up and clean-up behavior at the beginning and conclusion of each class session is a personal responsibility and a vital part of the art curriculum.

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Critiques

Visual Analysis is part of every course curriculum in the visual arts and students are trained to distinguish between subjective and objective observations, to articulate the vocabulary of the visual language, and to develop the inter-personal art of helpful critiquing. Students are encouraged to dialog and discuss each other’s art with respect for the honor and self-esteem of their peers.

Supplies

Each instructor in every Visual Arts course designs a Custom Tool Kit which is appropriate to their discipline and which they present to their students early in the semester. This kit becomes the property and responsibility of the student. Students may use their tools for homework of all kinds, but are expected to have their kits in the classroom whenever they meet.

Kits must be removed from the classroom at the conclusion of the course or they will be redistributed to classroom supply caches. A lab fee for these kits is charged to a student’s account at the Middle School Bookstore.

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Storage

Students enrolled in a Visual Arts course may expect classroom storage to be made available for Custom Tool Kits and Art Portfolios. The department cannot, however, guarantee secure storage for student cameras, and these should be secured in student lockers when not being used.

Students who have borrowed school cameras will be responsible for replacing and/or repairing them if they are lost or damaged.

The department cannot guarantee the long-term storage of artwork and kits from completed course sections. We encourage parents to help their children take their art and art portfolios home when their courses are completed. Please let your child know how much you look forward to seeing and displaying their work when it comes home.

Labeling of artwork, kits, and cameras

Ownership, authenticity, copyright, and personal responsibility are all inter-related. For visual artists, the final phrase of our HW Honor Code has many levels of meaning: “On all my work, my name affirms my honor.”

Therefore, we require our students to label their artwork, tool kits, and portfolios with their names and course sections. Cameras and camera cases should be labeled with student (or family) names before they are brought to school.

In turn, we assure each student that their work is clearly labeled and accredited when it is exhibited, reproduced, published, and/or graded.

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Exhibits

Regular exhibitions and displays of student work make an informative and inspirational contribution to the HWMS community and environment, and it is the final phase of the art making process. Students learn from their peers by seeing each other’s art work, and the school community likewise becomes more familiar with individual students through the art they share and display.

Therefore, all students are required to exhibit their work at least once during every Visual Arts course they enroll in, and instructors are required to exhibit student work in such a way that student authorship and ownership may be accurately and uniquely determined.

Students are expected to treat each other’s work and the exhibition activity with deference and respect. Likewise, students are expected to consult with the appropriate instructor should the need arise to remove a work from an active display.

Standards for exhibition and display follow the same standards of respect and decency that the school administration adheres to, and practicing respect for the dignity of individuals, their cultural backgrounds, and personal privacy is an important part of the Visual Arts Department's ethos.

Publications

Exhibition and publication is the natural outcome of the expressive and communicative arts, and engaging in these activities enhances personal growth and self-esteem. Please ask your child to show you their art when it is on display, and ask their instructors to guide you to your child’s contribution to school displays and exhibitions.

Parents are encouraged to visit the galleries and displays where their child’s work is shown, and to visit the HWMS Visual Arts Department's Student Gallery web pages.

Please note that student work, if properly used and accredited, may be reproduced by the school in various school and student publications and on various web pages which the school maintains.

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Homework

While homework is not a nightly occurrence in the Visual Arts, longer term homework assignments such as sketch book studies, photo assignments, selections of materials and objects, journaling, reading, and worksheets are important activities which are highly effective learning tools. Consequently, homework performance may account for a reasonable portion of a student’s grade.

Given the length of time it takes to create a well-rounded body of artistic work in the classroom, one might expect that homework assignments are most influential to a student’s first quarter grade, when major projects are still works in progress.

Students are expected to understand that Visual Arts homework deadlines and objectives are as important and time-critical as those in other courses.

Some Visual Arts courses require brief but regular research projects on the web as preparation and background for in-class projects. Consequently, students are also encouraged to meet their teacher’s expectations concerning the use of web-based resources.

Visual Arts homework may require no more than 15 minutes per week of a student's time. Homework assignments are few, and they are generally long-term (2-3 week) assignments (such as a sketchbook assignment or a photography assignment) which allow students the flexibility they need to manage their time and prioritize their attention to a variety of school activities.

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Habits of Mind

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