Arts at Packer

We believe that exploration in the Arts plays a major role in personal development, in community building, and in student achievement across disciplines.

From a very early age, young people who are immersed in the Arts have more opportunities to develop self-confidence, resolve, imagination, reflective thinking, and risk-taking. Our Performing Arts and Visual Arts programs provide students with a wide array of opportunities in music, dance, drawing, sculpting, theater, photography, and filmmaking.  Arts classes at Packer emphasize the importance of imaginative thinking, creative expression, and experimentation.   

Our Arts sequence is designed to help students develop and extend their artistic range, exploring their own voices, styles, and forms of expression. They are encouraged to find joy, inspiration, and innovative approaches through individual projects as well as ensembles, such as theater, choral, and instrumental classes. 

In Preschool and Lower School, our youngest learners enjoy visual art, dance, and music, which inform and support their classroom learning. From 3rd Grade onwards, students also have classes in theater and dance, and from 4th Grade, they can pursue instruments found in the woodwinds, brass and strings families, or take part in chorus. As they move through Middle School, students deepen their specialized study through rotating exposure to the Arts disciplines to prepare them fully for the Upper School, where we offer high level electives in dance, orchestra, jazz band, theater, photography, digital video and studio art. College level Advanced Topic courses are also offered in Studio Art and Photography. Read more about our program in Visual and Performing Arts under Academics, or in our Curriculum Guides for Middle School and Upper School.

Meet our Arts Faculty

Our Arts faculty, all of whom are working professionals in their respective fields, create learning environments that are open and supportive. This gives our students an opportunity to discover, explore, and develop their talents as ways of further understanding themselves and of making positive contributions to the world we live in.