ASR Enhances Visual Arts Program

The Academy at Swift River (ASR) is pleased to announce enhancements to its Visual Arts program including photography, studio art and painting / printmaking.

Black and white film photography activities include use of a fully equipped photography lab for processing film and producing prints. This class uses pin-hole cameras, 35 mm cameras and 120mm cameras. Students develop their own film, create prints and develop the understanding of composition, image content, and the implication of time as recorded on a variety of film speeds and grain sensitivities.

A variety of printmaking options are offered including; dry point etching, using an Ettan etching press, as well as linoleum, woodcut, and monotype printmaking using a flat-platen press.

Two "Studio Art" classes are offered where students create sculptures from their imagination. These are developed through research, drawing, and then structurally created using empty plastic bottles, wire fencing, tape, foam, and paper mache. The sculptures are developed with surface additions and painted. The end result is the installation of the sculptures hung from the ceiling in the atrium of the academic building. Studio Art also includes graphite, ink, charcoal and painting in acrylic and watercolors, as well as an option to utilize multi-media image development combining collage and assemblage. Drawn images are created through direct observation, as well as the use and development of student's imagination.

The academy also offers a "Painting/Printmaking" course that creates landscape and still life drawings, watercolors, as well as acrylic paintings on canvas, and a series of monotype prints in which students experiment with color variations to develop and expand the drawings they have created.

Other enhancements include trips to local museums including: Williams College Museum of Art, Smith College Museum of Art, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and others. Local artists also visit the campus to present workshops, and share their individual art experiences with students.

Future plans include the use of kilns to offer ceramics, including slab construction, hand building and wheel work.

The Academy at Swift River (ASR) is an accredited college preparatory therapeutic boarding school for adolescents ages 13-17. The program focuses on helping teens get back on track by restoring relationships, rediscovering academic success, and preparing them for the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood.