Have you ever taken an art class that allows you to draw, paint, design, take photos, make films, and create sculptures and ceramics all at the same time? At Williston, the new Advanced Studio Art course allows you to learn and make art with all of those mediums and more.

This year Williston Northampton’s Art Department introduced a new art course, co-taught by three faculty members: Ms. Natania Hume, who instructs drawing, ceramics, and design; Ms. Susanna White, who focuses on painting and sculpture; and Mr. Ed Hing, who works with photography and film.

On green weeks, the students will work on their own projects around the themes they choose. On blue weeks, the students will learn different artistic techniques from the three teachers to improve their work. The students are also expected to complete a journal with pictures every class day, and submit their journals weekly.

Senior Myro Marioghae likes the assignment and comments, “Writing a journal is something new to me.” She adds, “[This includes] drawing pictures, [and] putting down stuff that interests you.” This way, students will consistently gather their thoughts, reflect on their work, and see growth and improvements over time.

In the first week of class, Ms. Hume brought a few of her oil paintings, watercolors and sketches to show the students and to give them a sense of direction. She discussed the various stages in her career, transitioning from one art form to another and finally deciding to settle on ceramics. Students enjoyed looking at Ms. Hume’s past works and were amazed by the variety and artistry of these pieces.

Senior Brenna Quirk reflects, “I thought it was interesting how she talked about like what inspired her to transition from experimenting something to something else and how they were interconnected.”

Mr. Hing discusses the idea of group teaching, saying, “We’ve always wanted to do group critiques [and] to have more than just one teacher to view and comment on the work of students and to give opinions coming from different perspectives.”

Ms. Hume, who also teaches the Contemporary Art class, adds, “Advanced students in my class rarely work with only one medium anymore, and we hope this [class] will allow us to teach in a way that is more contemporary, cohesive and progressive.”

When asked about why he signed up for the class, senior Gabe Jacobson says, “Art is changing; [it] doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you’re [going to] have to be creative and [use] multi-media.” In Gabe’s eyes, the new Studio Art class is something that is “capable of breaking the implied rules . . . Those rules that divide our mediums and make us think we’re a certain type of artist.”

The class is composed of twelve talented artists who have already accomplished many objectives in different art areas. Each has set different goals for him- or herself by signing up for this class, whether it is to experiment with new mediums, to work on a portfolio for college, or simply to have more time to create art.