Student Life
Visual Arts: K-6
The department of visual arts at GRACE is based on the understanding that God, the original Creator, is a creative God who designed mankind to be imaginative and creative. He gave us the ability to appreciate beauty and produce artwork that is glorifying to Him. Students at GRACE are introduced to a variety of art materials and techniques at an early age, and the first years in art are about joyful exploration and discovery as students learn about new media, processes, and art elements and principles. Some art lessons also make connections to other subjects, incorporating science, history, math, and Bible units.
Students in kindergarten through second grade have art class once a week for thirty minutes, while students in third, fourth, and fifth grades have art for forty-five minutes each week. Beginning in sixth grade, students may choose to take art as an elective, and in the upper grades students sharpen their drawing skills and focus on mastering techniques and media introduced in earlier grades.
The GRACE art department loves to show off our students' artwork, and we prominently display student art at both campuses. We participate in the yearly NC State Fair art exhibit, the ACSI Art Festival for the southeast region, and the annual Young Artists Exhibition at Visual Art Exchange, and fourth grade art is also entered into the NC Wildlife Magazine calendar contest. In 2009, a fourth-grade student from GRACE received an honorable mention in the VAE Young Artists Exhibition. GRACE high school students also participate in the artSPARK street painting festival held in the fall in downtown Raleigh and the Congressional arts show in the spring, and this school year, high school students created a large-scale sculpture of a cow made of recyclable materials for the State Fair. We also show student artwork in an ongoing rotation at the State Employees' Credit Union on Walnut Street in Cary, in April at the Barnes & Noble bookfair in Cary, and in the spring at Crabtree Valley Mall. Please contact the art department for more information on upcoming events!
