The Sharon Academy

TSA offers a wide variety of opportunities for students to experience the arts. From the middle school chorus, to the high school play, and electives offered in quilting, textiles, 3-D art, jewelry, and photography, students are bound to find a venue for expression. In attempts to incorporate the arts more completely in students’ lives, TSA inaugurated a beautiful and naturally lit art room in 2007 and hired an art coordinator/instructor and middle school choral director that same year. As a result, we have been able to diversify opportunities in the arts for students.

The Visual Arts at TSA	Thursday Night Cafe	Interim 2008: Guys and Dolls	One Acts

The Sharon Academy Art Program:

TSA high school students find an enthusiastic and challenging art program available to them through a combination of an on-site core curriculum and off-site offerings in the community.

The emphasis of our art program is on practice itself but we also believe in the importance of providing on-going art historical references and viewing opportunities. Our coursework includes two-dimensional and three dimensional design, drawing, photography, oil painting and graphic arts. We are focused on developing students' creativity, imagination and problem solving as well as art skills. Students often choose or are assigned visual projects in their other courses and our art department's goal is to strengthen design and aesthetic sensibilities in order to accomplish high quality work.

Our program is dedicated to attracting area artists. The community also provides many off campus opportunities such as Oil-painting at the Tip Top Building in White River Junction, Ceramics at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and Printmaking at the Two Rivers Studio in White River Jct. Our students show their work with an opening reception and month long exhibit at the ArtSpace, one of the region's most inviting exhibit spaces, in Tunbridge , VT.

• Introduction to Art
• Oil Painting I & II
• Photography I & II
• Creating Comics
• Student Yearbook
• Book Arts – Book Binding Techniques
• Beginning Architectural Design

Specific Examples:

• Textile Art: Clara Compare (’09), Taylor Faccio (’09), Phoebe Landon (’10), Nina Magini (’09), and Morgan Tracy (’10) designed and created intricate, fitted shirts assembled out of painted materials that they stitched, glued, and wove together. Beautiful art!
• Introduction to Art: The High School's Firstyear Class ('11) designed and built two large 3-D scupltures. The first quarter students built a large (over 30' tall) Pheonix (the TSA mascot) sculpture made out of the limbs of trees that was placed next to the entrance of our building. The second quarter students worked with cardboard to make another large (15' long), 3-D flying Pheonix that hangs in our Community Room in the High School.

The Sharon Academy Theater Program:

Each academic year, for two weeks, The Sharon Academy transforms into its own theater production company! Most faculty members play a role, whether it's assisting with directing, costuming, creating a play bill, selling ads, or even performing. All students for the past two years have also voluntarily joined in helping to create a full-blown musical. The normal school schedule is cancelled, and everyone commits their time and energy to learning dance routines, singing, creating posters, sewing costumes, essentially doing whatever it takes to make the show go on! Students also often take the lead in most aspects of the show: our band has been led by students, our chorus by another, and the choreography is often designed by students as well. Set design, lighting design, costume design, sound design are also all led by students.

Similarly, every year, the TSA Middle School organizes and performs a circus in the spring. Students design the sets and put together the acts to display their artistic, creative minds, and unique talents like unicycling and acrobatics. Held in the gym of the high school, the circus entails big acts of dancing and tumbling and smaller acts of magicians, unicyclists, and clowns.

Other theater offerings exist as well. TSA offers one quarter electives in introduction to theater, one-act performance, and a "build your own dream" special. In 2006 and 2007, TSA's one-acts took stage at the Vermont State Drama Festival.

2008-2009 Theater

• Musical: "Guys and Dolls", music and lyrics written by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows - November 20-22, 2008
• Circus: March 27, 2009
• One-Act: March 2009

The Sharon Academy Music Program:

While most of our music classes are held as electives, TSA offers some great, creative opportunities for those students whose artistic talents lie with musical performance.

• Thursday Night Café: Rather than host recitals, TSA offers a monthly open house for all students, staff, and family to perform songs, act out skits, and hold comedy shows for our community.
  
• Middle School Chorus: As an elective for 7^th and 8^th graders, choir offers students the opportunity to learn the basics of music theory, learn about the musical styles and expressions of other cultures, and learn to unite to perform beautiful compositions.