Visual Arts and Design
The Visual Arts Department seeks to evoke a joyful curiosity in the pursuit of life-long learning in the visual arts, through an engaging curriculum that exercises the imagination, cultivates visual and cultural literacy, and builds technical skills in a variety of manual and digital media.
The William Penn Charter School Visual Arts department has eight studio/classrooms in our three divisions. The Pre-K has both art and movement studios, the Lower School has two studios, a two-dimensional studio for drawing, painting, collage, weaving and batik, and a fully equipped three-dimensional shop-studio for woodworking, ceramics and sculpture.
The Middle School studio, room 100, supports both two- and three-dimensional work, and uses the Middle School Atrium and other spaces for drawing and interdisciplinary art projects.
The Upper School has four well-equipped studios and a small darkroom for independent work in film photography. Room 105 is a large multi-purpose studio for painting and drawing, photography and interdisciplinary work. Room 105A is our digital lab for film, animation and photography. The lab is fully equipped with the Adobe Creative Suite, Macs, and drawing tablets. Rooms 102-103 are equipped for Upper School three-dimensional work, including 12 pottery wheels, ample studio space for hand-building and sculpture, two kilns, and a pugmill for recycling clay.
Penn Charter is also home to two maker spaces, known as IdeaLabs. The main IdeaLab, located in the Middle School basement, is equipped with laser cutters, 3D printers, a green screen and several large all-purpose work tables.
The Lower School IdeaLab has rudimentary robotics kits, iPads outfitted with interactive learning software and plenty of traditional hands-on learning tools to aid students in creative projects and design-based work.
Pre-K
Lower School
Middle School
Upper School