Art Department Chair Paul Tines, at the encouragement of Headmaster Ed Shanahan, president of the Eight Schools Association, initiated an October 13 art symposium at Choate, at which 42 teachers from Choate’s peer schools were represented.

The conference marked the first time that art teachers from peer schools had convened in this fashion. Focusing on collaboration and inter-school support, the arts teachers discussed strengths, curricula, and challenges posed to the arts departments at their respective schools. Specific topics included rehearsal timing and length, administrative support, facilities, and budgets.

In general, the schools have opted for greater arts integration among the students on an inter-school level. In April, Lawrenceville will host a jazz festival and Andover a 10-minute play festival. Next year, Choate will host a 24-hour play festival and a choral event.

Of his role in initiating this inter-school support, Mr. Tines says, “Someone needed to step up to the plate.” He decided to write to his colleagues, eliciting feedback as he sculpted the “very fruitful day.” During the symposium, Tines moved among the various disciplines as Choate teachers in the visual arts, music, and theater took notes on the discussions. Following the meeting he sent out an e-mail to all of the schools summarizing the day and sharing the notes. “It’s wonderful for educators in all disciplines to come together to talk,” he said.

The day kicked off at 10am with coffee and introductions by Mr Tines and the Executive Director of the Eight Schools Association, former Hotchkiss Headmaster Mr Skip Mattoon. The teachers then divided into groups for music, theater, dance, and visual arts. The eight department heads met as well. At noon all the teachers gathered for lunch in the gallery and listened to the keynote speaker Jock Reynolds, former head of the Addison Gallery of American Art at Andover and current Director of the Yale University Art Gallery. Reynolds spoke about arts education and the value of arts, following his lecture with a 45-minute question and answer session. During the afternoon the groups discussed collaboration verses competition as well as possible inter-school events and arts organization. The symposium reconvened to hear the ideas and suggestions generated during each discipline discussion before the teachers departed for home at 4:00 pm.

Tracy Ginder-Delventhal of the Choate Theater section suggested a 24-hour play festival. Although she has yet to begin detailed planning, the idea of the project is that the eight schools will come together on a Friday night to do a workshop with Second City Improv; students will be presented with a social theme to develop into a play over the next 24 hours. The groups of students, mixed to represent all of the eight schools, will write, stage, direct, act out and perform their plays on Saturday night.

Both Ms. Ginder-Delventhal and Mr. Tines described the event as something they were interested in hosting because of its “organic” and “fab” standing as one of the hottest current theater fads. Andover holds one every year. It is an easy event to host and will promote inter-school bonding.

In addition to inspiring inter-school events, the symposium opened opportunities to share resources—both physical and financial. Mr. Tines has expressed a desire to do a visual arts tour, which might become more affordable if multiple schools could underwrite it. The theater departments could use block booking to share financial resources in order to bring in outside companies such as Aquila Theater Company. The schools have also floated the idea of lending or renting out physical resources such as costumes and music scores.

The consensus among the Arts Departments is that the schools compete enough on the athletic fields and should learn to support each other through the arts. John Reese of the Deerfield Theater Department declared that he has never viewed theater as competitive and that if he attends a play he wants it to be good. “We all wanted to work in the spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm for what we do and not as competitors,” Mr. Reese explained. Although Deerfield has not planned to host any events as yet, the school looks forward to attending the 24-hour play festival at Choate.

The symposium helped to further the evaluation process that occurs every few years at each of the schools. Last week, representatives from other schools evaluated Choate’s music department. Mr. Phil Ventri was requested to be a part of the music evaluation team at Exeter, and Ms. Ginder-Delventhal was invited to Exeter’s theater evaluation.

Mr. Reese was on the evaluation team for the theater program at Choate a few weeks ago and was very impressed with the devotion of the teachers and the talent of the students within the acting classes and during their rehearsals of She Stoops to Conquer.

Mr. Valentine of the Choate music department asserted the fundamental importance of the arts to his chorus after the symposium. He feared for the subjugation of the arts as “fluff” and their eventual disappearance if students involved in the program do not believe in the value of what they are doing and earn the respect of the rest of the community. He explained that one must work equally hard to excel in the arts as in academic areas and that the arts serve just as important a role in society.

Ginder-Delventhal noted that in a prep-school environment in which students are under constant pressure, the arts “run against the current in a lot of ways.” She commented that Choate is a school where the arts are upheld and supported, and that the student artists are not subjugated as “weirdoes,” which she noticed somewhat during her three day evaluation of Exeter in December.

She was pleased to gain some colleagues to correspond with as well as opportunities for her student artists to connect with students at other schools, as she feels school art programs can sometimes be isolating. “It is good to know that there are other people out there having similar experiences to your own,” she said.

Though all of the eight schools are passionate about the arts, teachers shared some of the impediments they have experienced serving schools and their student artists, including the structure of arts requirements and rehearsal scheduling. One of the key issues discussed was the dilemma of finding time to rehearse. Deerfield allows its students to choose among athletics, community service, and theater without imposing a requirement. Although students can choose which discipline they would like to pursue, many athletes end up doing a play for a term and vice versa.

When Mr. Reese first came to Deerfield, theater rehearsals were in the evenings, as they still are at several of the eight schools. He felt that this scheduling was hard on students, who would not begin their homework until late at night. Mr. Reese also commented that performing plays during the weeks in addition to on the weekends has solved some scheduling concerns for his school, and he has noticed an improvement in student grades after these changes.

Sarah Ream, chair of the department of theatre and dance at Phillips Exeter Academy, expressed her appreciation for the exchange of ideas among colleagues that took place at the symposium on behalf of the Chairs of visual arts, music and theatre at Exeter. Her school looks forward to more professional contact in addition to more inter-school student artist connection. Ms. Ream was impressed with Ms. Ginder-Delventhal’s stewardship of the theatre group and her synthesis of ideas discussed in a presentation to the group at the end of the day.

Ginder-Delventhal described the collaborative experience as “nourishing.” She remarked that many programs, such as a 10-minute play festival at Andover in April to which she will be taking students, came out of the collaboration, but that the most exciting part for her was the understanding she gained of the tremendous arts education and dedication to the students among the faculty members of the other schools. “At core, we are all passionate artists who are trying to share our love of creativity with the students,” she said.