Elements Dance Company and the Winter Dance Ensemble (along with some special guests!) presented Hallway Hustle, this winter’s Upper School Dance Concert. The show took a glimpse at a typical day in the life of a Westtown School student through altered forms of various social dances in this lively performance. Well done, dancers!
See more from their concert here!
The Middle School presented James and the Giant Peach, a production based on Roald Dahl’s “masterpeach” of a tale with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. When James is sent by his conniving aunts to chop down their old fruit tree, he discovers a magic potion that grows a tremendous peach, rolls into the ocean and launches a journey of enormous proportions. James befriends a collection of singing insects that ride the giant piece of fruit across the ocean, facing hunger, sharks and plenty of disagreements along the way.
Congratulations to the cast and crew of this excellent production and thank you to theater teacher Jack McManus who directed!
Enjoy the entire gallery of photos from the performance here!
In February, six students from fifth and sixth grades were selected to perform in this year’s Chesco Band Fest: Jonathan D’Alessandro ’32, Lucas Donatelli ’32, Hugo Charriez ’32, Charlie Maloney ’33, Jackson Silva ’32, and Alex Wahlen ’33. The festival hosted over 100 fifth and sixth grade band students from around Chester County representing 25 schools. Students spent the day rehearsing with a guest conductor in preparation for an evening concert the same day. This year students worked with Mr. Ryan Fegley, a longtime educator from the Unionville/Chadds Ford School District. Congratulations to our talented musicians and our thanks to music teacher Jason Wu for facilitating this opportunity for our student musicians!
From left: Teacher Jason Wu, Charlie Maloney (5th), Alex Wahlen (5th), Lucas Donatelli (6th), Jackson Silva (6th), Hugo Charriez (6th), Jonathan D’Alessandro (6th)
Congratulations to our fifth graders, who wrote and performed their food-themed adaptation of Aesop’s Fables—Aesop’s Tables! Their performances included clever characters and delicious baked goods, and meaningful lessons were woven into every tale. Their performances were a true delight. Bravo, students!
Enjoy more photos of the play here!
Congratulations to the five Middle Schoolers who were featured in this year’s PAEA Youth Art Month Exhibition—Keira Bartholomae ’30, Jena Farhan ’30, Annsley Frazier ’31, Pedro Giraldo Lozano ’30, and Sam Lehmann ’31! This statewide virtual exhibition is organized by the Pennsylvania Art Educators Association as part of Youth Art Month (March) as part of the annual nationwide celebration administered by The Council for Art Education and The National Art Educators Association. Youth Art Month recognizes and applauds the power of visual arts education and the skills student artists develop through problem-solving, creativity, observation, and visual communication. A special congratulations to Keira, whose ink drawing “Old Shack” (using black walnut ink from our local trees) was selected by a jury of professional working artists as this year’s PAEA Youth Art Month Middle School Division Award! Well done, artists!
The Faculty and Staff Exhibit recently showcased what our staff and faculty have been creating! This exhibition brought together artwork from across departments and divisions—painting, sculpture, textiles, and more. It was an opportunity to see the ideas, experiments, and personal projects being explored by the adults in this community outside the classroom. From bold visuals to quiet moments of reflection, the show offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative energy that drives our campus community. Enjoy their work here!
Through the support of the McLear Visiting Artist Fund, we were honored to welcome Rebecca Kamen this fall, an artist and lecturer on the intersection of art and science. Kamen says her “artwork is informed by wide-ranging research into cosmology, history, philosophy, and by connecting common threads that flow across various scientific fields to capture and re-imagine what the scientists see.” She worked with students from Diantha Giltz’s and Domenic Frunzi‘s art classes to explore these connections between art and the sciences. Students first visited the lab in the Science Center to look at various types of soil (and the organisms in it) through microscopes, then used what they saw as inspiration for their sketches and art pieces.
Kamen says she loves coming to Westtown and working with our students; this is her second visit. In fact, she was the inaugural artist in the McLear Artist-in-Residence program, though her residency was cut short by the pandemic. The McLear Artist-in-Residence Program was created in January 2019 to support a residency in the Upper School visual arts department. Artists-in-residence are chosen by the Upper School arts faculty, and preference is given to artists working in the visual arts, particularly those exploring the intersections between art and science.
The Upper School fall play was Peter and the Starcatcher, a thrilling prequel to Peter Pan! The story begins as a young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates—led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own—the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure.
Our thanks to Theater Director Shawn Rowley, and our amazing cast and crew for this excellent production!
See the talented cast in action here!
Our Middle and Upper School students along with the Elements Dance troupe dazzled at the fall Dance Concert! Enjoy photos of their performance here!
What are the holidays without the beautiful refrains of seasonal music? The community was treated to both the Middle School and Upper School concerts before the winter break, showcasing the work and talent of our students. You can enjoy the galleries of photos from the Middle School concert here and the Upper School concert here.
