Fine Arts gets a face-lift

For the 2007-2008 school year, the Blair Fine Arts department plans to introduce a new course and re-vamp some of the program's older ones in attempt to improve the department's curriculum classes.

According to piano teacher and program coordinator Sara Josey, the school will offer an Advanced Percussion class next year, Percussion Ensemble 2, in order to accommodate students who are already experienced percussion players.

"We thought there was a need for students who had previous work experience playing percussion to have an opportunity to work on advanced skills and music and participate in performing groups, [like] drumline, marching band, and symphonic groups," she says.

Current music teacher Dustin Doyle will teach the class, which Josey expects will bring in a great deal of this year's current percussion ensemble, enabling them to keep studying their instruments.

In addition to this new class, Josey says that several other fine arts courses will be getting face-lifts for the new academic year, including Photography and Guitar 2. Next year, Blair will be the first school in Montgomery County to switch to an entirely digital-based photography lab, a decision that Josey suggests is as much a practical idea as a progressive one.

"It's being done because companies are no longer manufacturing black and white photo paper, so the supplies are dwindling fast," she says. "Plus [they] have become even more expensive. Since the professional photo world is going digital, this will better prepare any students who want to pursue a career in photography."

And in an attempt to widen the range of musical instruments represented in the Blair band, students enrolling in advanced level guitar courses for next year (Guitar 2) will be considered a part of a guitar ensemble. Like this year's percussion ensemble, Guitar 2 classes will perform at some Blair functions and performances, consolidating with other band classes offered at Blair. The process of integrating guitar students into the band is set to start early, Josey said; this year's class will travel with the school's instrumental and choral groups to Boston in April to attend a national music festival.

A recent InfoFlow announcement also sought to draw students' attention to some of the departments' other class offerings, such as studio art, choral music and digital art.