Choate Rosemary Hall embraces individuality. It rejoices in the different styles and cultures that sit smiling around the great wooden tables in the Hill House Dining Hall. It revels in the expression of self, of passion, of creativity, and it encourages its students to pursue their interests, whether they lie in the classroom, on the playing field, in the studio, or on the stage.
Perhaps this is why Choate has such a thorough arts program. Offering myriad courses in various disciplines, the Arts Department at Choate encourages students to explore the corners of their creativity. The mission statement of the Choate Arts Department says, “The arts department embraces the belief that all students have the potential to express themselves creatively. The mission of the department is to foster and nurture each student as an artist and to give each student the requisite tools to be successful. It is also our mission to cultivate an understanding and love of the performing and visual arts by providing a positive environment in which the student and teacher can appreciate and explore the creative process. We believe that a truly educated student must possess a clear understanding of how the arts impact his or her life in a personal, social, economic, and cultural context.”
Arts Concentration
Accordingly, students have countless opportunities to participate in Choate theatrical productions and other art programs made available to them. More elite is the Arts Concentration program. This program offers students who are especially interested in the arts the opportunity to focus on their passion during their time at Choate. Says Choate of this special curriculum plan, “Through our Arts Concentration Program, students have individually tailored schedules, with arts classes most terms in concert with courses selected from Choate’s comprehensive curriculum. The Arts Concentration Program allows, for example, an instrumentalist to use afternoons to rehearse or a visual arts student to focus on a studio project, with an adjustment in the athletic requirement.”
Some students in the program, when they leave Choate, go on to colleges centered on the arts. In choosing their colleges, high school seniors make among the most definitive decisions of their lives. Questions flow through the minds of students going through the college application process: “What colleges will I apply to? Ultimately, which college will I attend?” Many Choaties immediately turn to colleges in the Ivy League and other well-known academic institutions, but others consider options like arts conservatories, one-track colleges which focus primarily on the arts. Only a handful of Choate graduates choose this particular path.
Paul Tines, head of the Arts Department at Choate, advises against such conservatories. He believes that students who are dedicated to the arts should pursue an education from a traditional liberal arts school rather than from schools centered entirely on the arts. Tines explains, “You need a liberal arts education! You can’t understand acting if you don’t understand history. How can you perform Shakespeare, if you’ve never read one of his plays? How can you perform Brecht’s Galileo if you’ve never studied math?”
Some students choose to apply to colleges that allow them to both concentrate on the arts receive a liberal arts education. Margo Herre ’07 decided to apply to New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, which she will attend next fall. Her passion for photography led her to pursue her interests beyond Choate. Herre explains, “I didn’t want the arts conservatory experience because I want to know other people than art kids and wanted a broader education than just classes in art.”
Other Choate students who have an interest in the arts instead further their passions by attending summer programs. Jen Bashian ’08, a student who is a part of the Arts Concentration Program at Choate, has chosen this path to increase her experience in theater outside of Choate’s program. Having spent her past summer it the Theater Bridge Program at Brown University, and planning to possibly spend this summer in the Cherubs program at Northwestern University, she is a veteran of summer theater programs. She says of her own experiences, “Theater is a huge part of my life, so I am always looking for ways to further my study of the craft. Attending a program in the summer allows me to continue and expand on the theater training I’ve experienced at Choate.”
Students acknowledge the benefits of the Arts Concentration Program, declaring that it prepares them for a future in that field. At the same time, some students may become involved in the arts outside of Choate without any experience in Choate’s Art Department during their time in high school. Mr. Tines explains that he has witnessed several Choate alumni who never set foot in the PMAC return to the school and declare themselves musicians, actors, or painters.
In the end, it all depends on the individual. A student involved in the programs that Choate has to offer may or may not choose to pursue work or education in that field, but all seem to agree that the opportunities Choate does provide are extensive, helpful, and enjoyable.
