The Fine Arts Program at St. Anthony of Padua offers students the opportunity to engage in the visual and performing arts, enhance their communication skills, and enrich their appreciation of the Arts that communicate truth, goodness, and beauty.
Our Visual Arts program offers a rich and engaging curriculum that aligns with the BC curriculum while embracing the Catholic Liberal Arts tradition. Through this program, students embark on a journey of artistic discovery and expression that nurtures their creativity, critical thinking, and spiritual growth.
The Visual Arts curriculum is designed to progressively develop students' understanding and skills as they advance through grade levels. Students explore fundamental elements and processes of design with increasing complexity as they progress. Students are introduced to a wide range of artistic techniques and mediums, thereby gaining hands-on experience, developing their skills, and discovering their artistic expression. In addition, students are guided to explore various genres of artwork, from classical to contemporary to gain a broader appreciation for artistic styles and cultural influences throughout history. Our program also integrates the study of art history, exposing students to significant artists, movements, and masterpieces. This historical context enhances students' understanding of artistic development and cultural significance.
In keeping with our Catholic Liberal Arts tradition, the Visual Arts program emphasizes:
Students are encouraged to reflect on their artistic process and creations, fostering a deeper understanding of themselves and their faith.
Through this comprehensive Visual Arts program, we aim to nurture well-rounded individuals who appreciate beauty, think creatively, and express themselves confidently through various artistic mediums.
In Music class, students explore a variety of music skills, from learning about music history to music theory, creating their own songs, appreciating various music genres from around the world, as well as developing personal connections with music that enables students to think critically and reflectively on how music impacts their lives.
Students are also taught hymns of praise and worship that are shared with our parish community during monthly School Masses and Eucharistic Adoration. For students who love to sing, St. Anthony’s Intermediate Choir practices weekly and performs for various school events.
Students from K-7 take Drama classes once a week. By focusing on social-emotional skills and community building activities in class, students explore a variety of drama skills: voice, character, movement, creative problem-solving, and improv. Various disciplines in Theatre Education are explored from theatre history to mime, puppet and mask-work, monologues, stage design, and more.
The students also have the opportunity to engage in diverse theatrical experiences such as annual productions, frequent field trips to musicals, plays, and children's theatre, as well as participating in acting workshops.
All students get to showcase their talents in the annual Christmas play, the Fine Arts production in the Spring term, a talent show at the end of the school year, and the annual Speech Arts Festival. For the Speech Arts Festival, St. Anthony of Padua students participate in choric speech, Bible reading, poetry recitation, and individual speeches.
We take the arts seriously here at our school. Throughout a student’s career at St. Anthony of Padua School, it is our aim that through his or her engagement in these Fine Arts opportunities, he or she will be able to create, draw, paint, act, think, speak, sing and play for the greater Glory of God during the constant pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. These opportunities allow our students to build self-confidence, improve communication skills, learn to work with a team, and gain a lifelong appreciation for the Arts.