ARTS PROGRAMS
Our community school cultivates tomorrow's creative leaders through outstanding music instruction, visual arts, and theatre programs that inspire students to reach their highest potential with honest confidence.
-
MUSIC
Our world-renowned music program, anchored by an exceptional jazz curriculum, is led by an accomplished musician whose own music education began here, then in the legendary jazz schools of New Orleans, and has come full circle—returning home to teach at his own alma mater. Our director, Phelan Gallagher, brings authentic New Orleans jazz tradition and professional expertise back to the very halls where his own musical passion was first ignited, creating an inspiring program where students learn technique, theory, composition, and more.
-
VISUAL ARTS
GSA’s Visual Arts Program, chaired by Melissa Rioux, flourishes under the guidance of an artist whose exceptional talent and expertise inspire students to explore their creative potential across multiple mediums. Throughout the year, young artists develop their skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, and digital arts, building toward our highly anticipated annual community art show each spring—a celebration where student creativity takes center stage and the entire community gathers to witness the remarkable artistic growth and vision of our emerging artists.
The Student Art Show at the Blue Hill Public Library, held every spring, is a chance for students from the Blue Hill Peninsula to exhibit their work in public. Student art is on display at the library through the month of April.
Spring Arts Festival: This annual celebration of arts of all kinds, with workshops, performances, and more takes place every spring. Learn about the History of the GSA Spring Arts Festival.
-
THEATRE
Our intimate but extraordinary theatre program, led by Erin McCormick, proves that artistic excellence isn't measured by budget size but by depth of vision and commitment to craft. Our students tackle the most challenging classical works—from Sophocles' Antigone to Shakespeare's Richard III—developing the intellectual rigor and performance skills that have earned our program a prestigious reputation among regional theatre communities and college admissions offices. This small but mighty company transforms limited resources into limitless possibilities, preparing students not just to perform great works, but to think deeply about them, creating theatre artists who are as comfortable analyzing complex texts as they are commanding the stage.
ARTS FEST-
a community tradition
The Arts Fest takes place every spring on the campus of GSA. The community, GSA staff, and GSA students come together to celebrate creativity in all its forms for three full days.
From kayaking trips to Battle of the Bands to cooking classes, students learn new ways to explore their own creative capacities.
If you’d like to host an Arts Fest class, please sign up using the button below.
A Historical Note about the Spring Arts Festival
Katie Greene, retired art teacher and department chair, is remembered by many as the creator of the GSA Arts Festival, but according to Katie, the festival was created before she joined the faculty in 1977 by English teacher and theater director Bob Marshall. That festival, she said, “was completely in-house and mostly featured student performances in theater and music.”
“Shortly after I came, I changed the Arts Festival to its current form, a collaboration between community and school, and that’s how it continued all the years I was there*, and for most of those years, it was a full weeklong festival.” The Arts Festival benefited students in many ways, Katie said, but the most important was that it created connections between the school and “a community rich in the arts.”
In 2010, Katie drew on the strength of those connections and led a 13-member consortium** in applying for recognition of Blue Hill as an Imagination Intensive Community. The application was successful, and Blue Hill was one of six Maine communities to be awarded the honor.
Lead partners and donors for the project were the Maine Alliance for Art Education, Maine’s Department of Education, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Betterment Fund, and the Maine Arts Commission.
*Katie Greene retired in 2015.
**The consortium included Kneisel Hall, The Blue Hill Concert Association, Peninsula Pan Inc., Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Peninsula Metamorphic Arts and Learning, Bagaduce Music Lending Library, Atlantic Challenge, New Surry Theatre, The Maine Community Foundation’s Learning In Community Arts, WERU’s Community Youth Program, The Blue Hill Public Library, The Bay School, and George Stevens Academy.
