Apex Plus 23-24 - Fall Trimester

September 5 - November 16

39 Total Sessions = 48.75 hours

Mondays and Wednesdays: 19 Sessions = 23.75 hours

Tuesdays and Thursdays: 20 Sessions = 25 hours

Fall Festival Performance Dates: November 15 & 16

Students engaged in Fall Trimester Projects are required to present as part of the Fall Festival.

Projects Meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays will present on November 15

Projects Meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays will present on November 16

Projects Meeting on Mondays through Thursdays will present on both November 15 & 16

APPLIED ARTS

Artists hone their foundation by employing the technical skills of a particular art or field of endeavor. These courses are Prime specific, unless otherwise designated as open to students from all primes. Students should focus their Applied Arts choices in their prime arts area, but may explore outside of their prime in some cases. Commitment to Applied Arts courses includes portfolio building.

PROJECTS

Artists engage in projects that emphasize the creative process through opportunities designed to expand their creative lens through collaboration, community engagement, and multiple performance and presentation avenues. These courses are open to students from all primes. Enrollment and eligibility requirements vary among project offerings. Projects are designed to encourage students from all prime arts areas to collaborate.

APPLIED ARTS OPTIONS

Mondays and Wednesdays

September 6 - November 15

19 total sessions = 23.75 hours possible

Illustrating With Pastels.mp4

Illustrating with Pastels: Iconography & Storytelling

Teaching Artist: Robert Schumacher

Mondays & Wednesdays

In this class you will learn to illustrate with pastels. We will explore bright colors, shading and texture, icons and symbolism, and learn how to tell a story through a single image. We will learn design layout basics, meanings behind certain icons and shapes, and the feeling certain colors and combinations can evoke. This is a great class in beginning to understand creating full works of art, and how different works can be interpreted in different ways. Learning shading, light, and color through pastels is a fantastic gateway into honing these same skills with acrylic and oil paints.

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Sculpture: Fantasy or Realistic Humans & Animals

Teaching Artist: Barbara Bustard

Mondays & Wednesdays

Clay is a material rich in history and possibilities for art making, and hand building is the oldest use of the medium.

Hand building is a ceramics technique that allows you to create forms with clay and your hands, without using a throwing wheel.

Using hand building techniques, students in this course will create animal or human sculptures, either fantasy or realistic, using a study of the human or animal skeletal and muscular characteristics as a basis for their creation.

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Technique & Endurance Training for Dancers

Teaching Artist: Niaja Diggs

Mondays & Wednesdays

Dance Primes or significant dance background required.

This course is designed to compliment a dancers current training in classic technique and performance in all dance forms by strengthening the body's core (abdominal and back muscles) while developing coordination, balance, and alignment, and optimizing flexibility. The goal is more lift without tension, deeper pliés, higher jumps with less effort, tighter turns, and improved extension and turnout.

Dancers will work on building strength and endurance and technique through movement sequences. Students will also work on quick retention of choreography, focusing on detail.

Tuesdays & Thursdays

September 5 - November 16

20 total sessions = 25 hours possible

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Acrylic Painting

Teaching Artist: Atalante Shay

Tuesdays & Thursdays

With a paintbrush in hand, learn, and explore inspiring acrylic painting techniques while tapping into your self-expression.

Deepen your understanding of painting in this acrylic painting experience that will leave you feeling relaxed, inspired, and able to express yourself through painting on canvas.

In this course, you will:

Experiment, explore, and learn how to create an acrylic painting on canvas that expresses who you are.
Deepen your knowledge of color mixing and how to create color.
Experiment with various paintbrushes and learn which brushes to use, when, and why.
Practice dozens of new painting techniques, including: how to create and build texture, opaque paint application, glazing, composition, abstract and realistic painting techniques, palette knife paint application, layering of paint, expressive mark making, and more!
Relax and have fun in our non-judgmental, fear-free, and supportive art class.
Discover your unique style and voice through acrylic painting.
Engage in a supportive group environment with like-minded people.

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Exploring Abstract Expressionism

Teaching Artist: Mary Rosoff

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity. This course will explore a variety of techniques used by abstract expressionists during the beginning of the movement and applying to the student’s interpretations.

Fall Writing Collection.mp4

Fall Writing Collection

Teaching Artists: Maggie Heemstra & Lynn Schwartz

Tuesdays & Thursdays

This course is divided in to three units. Students are expected to remain enrolled for the full collection. At the conclusion of each collection, final work is turned in and presented. In order to earn credit for each unit, that work must be handed in and presented.

Units of study:

The Creative Habit

A Generative Lab: 20 Prompts to Kickstart Your Writing

Reading and Performing Poetry

Click here for more information about the units of study.

Multi-Genre Dance Workshop Series.mp4

Multi-Genre Dance Workshop Series

Teaching Artist: Rachel Cagle

Tuesdays & Thursdays

This series of classes offers a diverse range of dance and movement styles. Whether you are an experienced dancer or a beginning mover, these fusion classes give you a chance to learn something new week to week to build your repertoire.

Content includes technical/improvisational drills and learning choreography to build skills in movement vocabulary, musicality, and performance.

PROJECT OPTIONS

By opting in to a face-to-face project, artists commit to the full trimester, the final presentation (at the Fall Festival, an evening event), and any additional rehearsals required to prepare the presentation (tech or dress rehearsals that may be scheduled outside of the regular classes, that students will be informed about in advance).

As a collaborator, it is imperative that artists see the project through from beginning to end, therefore, only at the conclusion of the project are hours awarded. If artists do not complete the project and present at the festival, they do not earn the hours.

Mondays through Thursdays

September 5 - November 16

39total sessions = 48.75 hours possible for class sessions + extended rehearsals + Fall Festival

Fall Festival Performance Dates - November 15 & 16

Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Teaching Artists: Emily Karol & Francesca Chilcote

Mondays - Thursdays

"Take pains. Be perfect." "Lord, what fools these mortals be." "The course of true love never did run smooth."

A story of magic, fairies, and lovers, William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the Bard's most popular plays. Shakespeare is providing the words but we are devising the vision with a modern imagination. The possibilities are endless.

In this production, artists will work collectively to produce this 75 minute version- from the acting, make-up, costumes, lighting, and set design.

Devising and minimalism will be a strong element within our production.

This project will be presented at both evenings of the Fall Festival and will include extended rehearsals leading up to the performances. Dates and times for extended rehearsals will be communicated in advance.

On Broadway: A Musical Revue '23

Teaching Artists: Jamie O'Connor & Emily Zinski

Mondays - Thursdays

Vocal Music background required.

Are you an artist who has a passion for musical theatre? Are you a singer who wants more experience on stage? Are you an actor or dancer who wants to develop your singing ability?

In this course, vocal artists will gain experience singing Broadway solos, duets, scenes, and small group numbers. Our students will build skills in the technique, interpretation, and performance of musical theatre repertoire, and develop an original musical theater showcase.

PLEASE NOTE: You will be required to sing and act in front of your peers during each class.

This project will perform at both evenings of the Fall Festival and will include extended rehearsals leading up to the performances. Dates and times for extended rehearsals will be communicated in advance.

Mondays and Wednesdays

September 6 - November 15

19 total sessions = 23.75 hours possible + Fall Festival

Fall Festival Performance Date - November 15

Art Annapolis.mp4

Art Annapolis

Teaching Artist: Mary Rosoff

Mondays & Wednesdays

All primes welcome. Visual Art experience recommended.

Artists will create a collective study of Annapolis architecture and gardens through a variety of arts disciplines. Artists will take walking trips to Annapolis (weather permitting) with the goal of capturing the essence of Annapolis using sketchbooks and photography on the trips.

Artists will create a minimum of three highly proficient compositions using an assorted media in the studio for presentation at Studio 39 as part of the Fall Festival, and potentially in other gallery showings across AACo.

This project may require additional parent/guardian permission for students to leave campus on mini-field trips.

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Arts for Good

Teaching Artist: Lynn Streeter Childress

Mondays & Wednesdays

All primes welcome.

Students will learn about the impact that the arts can carry when it focuses on topics that affect our community both socially and emotionally, and create their own projects that use their artistic talents to speak up and speak out about issues important to them.

Examples would be bullying, the environment, unity, or any other cause that the artists want to highlight.

Students will work together to prepare a performance piece for the Fall Festival.

Music Video Project.mp4

Music Video Project

Teaching Artist: Athena Hiotis with Melissa Daoulas

Mondays & Wednesdays

Music Primes and Film & New Media Primes recommended.

If you are a musician, you know that video is important, not only as an asset on social media, but also as a way to represent your talent and capabilities. Whether you're auditioning, releasing your own music video, or simply wanting to keep up with your social media profiles, learning how to create dynamic video content is important. In this class, you're going to learn how to create video content and a music video using both a DSLR and our smartphones. We're going to focus on storyboarding, branding, filming, editing, and release planning to maximize our release's reach.

Our final project will be a performance video to be shown at the Fall Festival as well as supplementary video content for our social platforms. (You do not need to have active social media for your project in order to take this class.)

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Water As Inspiration

Teaching Artist: Lynn Schwartz

Mondays & Wednesdays

All primes welcome.

Writers, visual artists, and composers have long been inspired by the power, ever-changing beauty, and mystery of water. We quickly think of Monet’s Water Lilies painting series, Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa woodblock print, Water Music composed by George Frideric Handel, Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick, and even Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Our artistic pull to water makes sense as it is the foundation of our existence — covering about 71% of the Earth’s surface, and on average, comprising 60% of the body. And yet, water has many dualities that artists wrestle with — it’s serene and tempestuous, a restorative healer and a cruel force we cannot control, and there are those who have access to clean water and those who do not.

In this project, we will explore how humans have and will encounter water through visual image (painting, photography, video, collage), the written word (poem, story, song lyrics), music composition, and dance. It’s your choice. Whether your individual/collaborative exploration depicts emotion (wonder, fear, or concern), a fascination for legendary underwater life and worlds, the spiritual, the scientific, or a focus on environmental urgency, we will honor water’s complex relationship to humans and rethink how we might live with and respect water.

The project will be presented as part of the Fall Festival.

Tuesdays & Thursdays

September 5 - November 16

20 total sessions = 25 hours possible + Fall Festival

Fall Festival Performance Date - November 16

Lighted Dwellings.mp4

Lighted Dwellings

Teaching Artist: Barbara Bustard

Tuesdays & Thursdays

All primes welcome. Visual Art experience recommended.

Clay is a material rich in history and possibilities for art making, and hand building pottery is the oldest use of the medium.

Hand building is a ceramics technique that allows you to create forms with clay and your hands, without using a throwing wheel.

Using hand building techniques, students will design and create magical dwellings which will have a door, stairway and windows. Each piece will be illuminated by a light fixture.

Students will work in collaboration on how to connect their dwellings, and will build a presentation experience with their dwellings at the center for the Fall Festival.

Online Video Series or Short Film.mp4

Producing an Online Video Series or Short Film

Teaching Artist: Melissa Daoulas

Tuesdays & Thursdays

All primes welcome.

Students will be able to develop any genre of video content they want, ranging from fictional comedic pieces with limited casts to mock-documentaries and "real-world" genres.

They will be able to select their own cast, write their own script, and learn how to choose which portions they have filmed will make the final cut for their online video project.

Films and video series will be presented as part of the Fall Festival.

Write Your Own Song.mp4

Write Your Own Song

Teaching Artist: Athena Hiotis

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Music Primes and Creative Writing Primes recommended.

As an original artist, being able to write a song is the vessel by which your story is brought into the world. One good song can open up so many doors for you as a professional. But how do we do it? How do we take an idea and turn it into something that sounds good, flows well, is memorable, and also represents us authentically?

In this class, we're going to work towards building the skillset, experience, and confidence that is involved in songwriting. We will start with working on the foundations of songwriting by exploring our writing capabilities and expanding them by looking at examples of songwriting. From there we will focus on the lyrics and music to create a piece that tells the story we want to tell. Recording knowledge is not necessary for this class.

Our final project will be the presentation of our own song that we have written and recorded as part of the Fall Festival.

DIRECTED ENSEMBLES

DIRECTED ENSEMBLES ARE DESIGNED FOR SERIOUS ARTISTS (WHO MAY BE SELECTED BY AUDITION), AND EXTEND ACROSS MULTIPLE TRIMESTERS. THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT TIME COMMITMENT.

Student participation in a directed ensemble emphasizes continued skill development and refinement through a variety of higher-level skills, techniques, and performance qualities. There is an emphasis on performance in these ensembles.

Directed Ensembles for FALL Include:

APEX COMMERCIAL BAND | DANCE COMPANY A | DANCE COMANY B

Move to Directed Ensembles Page

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