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HAVERGAL COLLEGE
H
avergal College has always been
committed to providing a strong liberal
arts education for all its students. And
while it takes time for students to develop
the skills required to write, reason and
communicate clearly in ways that allow them
to make connections between disciplines,
it seems that children everywhere are born
with a predisposition to play, imagine and
create. Give any child under four years of
age crayons and some paper and, without
exception, an original work emerges from
the blank page. Of course the adults may
have to ask some questions of the artist to
better understand the creation itself, but that
conversation inevitably reveals some greater
truth about perception and reality—both
for the artist and for the viewer. That is the
experiential nature of the creative process,
and it finds a home at Havergal in the visual
and performing arts from JK through to
Grade 12.
The arts play an integral role in developing
the hearts and minds of students at
Havergal. Whether it be the self-portraits
drawn by our Kindergarten students that
adorn the walls of their classrooms or the
arias sung by an Upper School student at
Prayers, this school celebrates, honours and
educates emerging artists in drama, dance,
band, strings, singing, graphic arts, painting,
photography, sculpture and print making.
A whole team of passionate and committed
educators (who are also artists in their
own right) helps our students express their
creative selves in ways that can surprise our
students and their families.
Take, for example, the interdisciplinary
works created by our Junior School students.
Children translate their understanding of
the principles of music and visual arts into
unique multimedia works to create a hybrid
project where art and music collide. In so
doing, they internalize fundamental artistic
concepts and show how underlying ideas
and expressions of art are universal and
can be communicated through a variety of
disciplines in diverse ways.
And, while integrating the arts across
disciplines helps our students make
connections they had not previously
considered, the Grade 9 stone carving
project challenges our girls to connect with
something more physical. Stone carving
is an art form that students have little
experience with and most come to the
practice as complete beginners—each girl
starting from the same place as a novice
carver. Before starting a project, most
students are concerned with the quality of
their graphic skills and their ability to draw
or paint realistically; they tend to value
student work mainly for its realism and
can overlook ingenuity, innovation and
risk-taking.
Havergal’s stone carving program levels
the creative playing field because Grade
9 students do not have to be “good” at
drawing or painting to begin the project.
And because the carving seems to emerge
from within the stone itself—this is called
reductive sculpture—abstract forms are
just as likely to manifest as more traditional
ones. There is no erasing or painting over.
The sculpture takes shape slowly. A piece
of stone can (and does) break off and the
student’s initial idea for a finished work
changes in that moment. In this way our
students learn first-hand that creating art
requires tremendous patience, perseverance,
problem solving, courage, practice, thought
and revision. There is nothing perfect
about stone carving. It is a messy process
and things break. This is a concept the Art
department wants students to understand
early on in their studies; one that will
Celebrating the Arts at Havergal
By Mrs. Leslie Anne Dexter, Head of Junior School, and Dr. Michael Simmonds, Head of Upper School
Globally, we
need more
people who
can re-imagine,
re-interpret
and reflect
the diversity
of the human
condition.
Heads’ Message