Arts - Hillbrook School
Design, Performing, and Visual Arts
At Hillbrook, the Arts are the foundation for making a difference in the world.
The Arts are a key part of a Hillbrook education, and every student has an opportunity to develop both their technical skills and the confidence to take risks, try new things, and express themselves fully through their creativity. At Hillbrook, the Arts build curiosity, awareness, appreciation, and community, laying a foundation for a lifelong connection to creativity and self-expression.
Our students hone their perception, acquire skills and methods, build flexible thinking and transdisciplinary skills, and learn how to create both individually and in community. Wonder and discovery are in conversation with the sights, sounds, designs, and opportunities all around us.
Visual Arts
Music & Performing Arts
In their Visual Arts classes throughout Junior Kindergarten to 4th Grade, students learn the elements of: Line, Shape, Color, Value, Space, Form and Texture. Throughout each year, projects are focused on giving children experiences with each of these elements, spiraling and returning to elements with new perspective and increasing sophistication over time. Our projects draw inspiration from literature, music, and the observable world around us.  Many are inspired by picture books we read aloud together, especially stories about art, self, emotions, and famous artists and changemakers.  Students explore a variety of mediums, including markers, color sticks, sharpie markers, oil pastels, chalk pastels, colored pencil, watercolor paint, and clay. Students have opportunities each year for their work to be showcased to the larger Hillbrook community at Art Shows, Buddies events, and in displays around campus.
In their Junior Kindergarten through 1st grade Music classes, play, dance, and exploration are the building blocks for music foundations. In earlier grades, students learn about echo, beat, singing in tune, moving with expression and confidence, dynamics, and tone. In older elementary grades, students develop their own musicianship and tap into creativity in music by learning musical notation, music theory, part singing, playing Orff instruments, and begin to hone performance skills and stage presence.
Throughout their time in Junior Kindergarten through 4th Grade, students have opportunities to perform for families and peers in celebrations like Halloween, Grandparent & Special Friends’ Day, and grade-level events. Older elementary students also play increasing leadership roles in our yearly Spring Concert performance. Students may also elect to join club and afterschool opportunities to further their performance, instrumental and choral learning, taking various roles in short-form performances in our Blackbox Theater or supporting older grades’ shows, learning more challenging choral skills and performing in school assemblies, and more.
Visual Arts
Photography
Design & Making in the Hub
Performing Arts
The Spring Musical
Students in 5th and 6th grades undertake an exploration of many mediums in Visual Arts, studying painting, drawing, ceramic, and mixed media. These explorations are designed to expose students to a range and variety of processes and mediums that may inform their selections of electives in the older middle grades. The elements of Art studied in Middle School Visual Art are: Line, Shape, Color, Value, Space, Form, and Texture. And students learn to perceive, discuss, and practice these principles of design: Balance, Emphasis, Movement, Pattern, Repetition, Proportion, Rhythm, Variety, and Unity.
In Middle School, student work is showcased in yearly Art Shows and students are supported to pursue other Visual Arts opportunities at on- and off-campus events, for example submitting work to external publications, showcasing work in displays on-campus, and partnering with events like Halloween, Grandparent & Special Friends’ Day, Buddies, Cultural Celebrations, and more to make their work visible to the community.
Students in Middle School take an introduction to photography, looking through the lens and capturing real-time moments in classrooms and across campus. Students learn the traditional tools and rules of photography (F-Stops, shutter speeds, lighting, framing, depth, form and more) as they learn to see the world through a photographer's lens to capture amazing moments in action. Students experiment with different kinds of camera tools and editing tools to produce and print large-format images.
In Middle School, students have an opportunity each year to display their photography in yearly Art Shows, in on-campus displays, and to volunteer for events where photography skills can be practiced in service of community, for example by joining the Yearbook, taking photos at athletic and community events, and more.
With over 3,000 square feet of inspiring makerspace for collaboration and creation, the Hub is the epicenter of making, engineering, and design at our Los Gatos campus. The Hub enables digital music and podcast production, green screen video, digital photography editing, drawing, painting and planning designs, rapid prototyping, sewing, embroidering, woodworking, and digital fabrication, including acrylic cutters, laser cutters, and 3D printers. The barn-like structure provides ample spill-out space for large-scale creation, with a variety of workspaces and room for students to tinker, explore, innovate, and problem-solve.
Students in late elementary through middle school build skills in basic woodworking, the Design Process, and digital fabrication. They can elect to join clubs and to use the Hub afterschool or at lunchtime to further their projects and collaborate with experts and peers. In Middle School, all students take a sampler course in the Hub spaces designed to expose them to a variety of processes and mediums in Design & Making that may inform their selection of electives in the older middle grades. Have you ever wanted to code your own arcade game? Learn to use a 3-D printer? Design and sew your own stuffed animal or a patch for your backpack? Code a robot?
Each year in late Elementary through Middle School, students have opportunities to grow their skills and display their creations for celebration (and sometimes for sale) at community events. They can put their skills to use for community events and in support of productions like our Spring Musical, the Talent Show, Grandparent & Special Friends’ Day, Halloween, weekly Flag Assemblies and more.
In 5th & 6th grades, students hone their skills both on-stage and back-stage. Over these two years, students can try drama, music, dance, and theater tech; lunch clubs and after-school enrichment classes offer more opportunities, with choir, rock and instrumental band groups, and drama club offered at various times throughout the year. All 5th and 6th grade students showcase their skills at our annual Winter Concert, and can showcase their creative talents at Friday Flag and the annual Talent Show.
In 7th and 8th grade, students dive into electives offerings that challenge them, increase their knowledge, and push the boundaries of a traditional middle school performing arts program. Elective offerings include courses like: Hillbrook Show Choir, Rock Band, Theater Tech, Spring Musical, Instrumental Ensemble, Drama Club, Set Building, and more. Throughout the year, a myriad of additional performance opportunities abound, within school and at external events near and far. 7th and 8th Grade students can participate in Winter Concert, support tech for Lower School performances and the Spring Musical in many roles both on-stage and back-stage, and can travel with Choir or Band groups to perform in the community.
A long-standing tradition at Hillbrook, the 8th grade class collaborates with directors, parents, and other middle school students to put on the Spring Musical.  The 8th grade class is responsible for the entire musical production, from choosing the show, to running tech, front of house, and backstage, to acting and singing on stage.  Each student is responsible for a crucial part of the show and collaborates with industry professionals to create a once-in-a lifetime experience.
Visual Arts
Design and Engineering
Performing Arts
Our Upper School art program deepens student understanding of inspiration and context, while emphasizing critical-thinking and communication skills. At the core of the program is the belief that the arts help make us fully realized human beings, as we learn new ways to see and think about ourselves and others.
Students take courses in human-centered design, an arts and engineering course which provides students an introduction to digital and physical fabrication, as well as visual art.
From backstage to the spotlight, our Upper School students find their talents, challenge themselves, and discover themselves as people through the medium of performing arts, theater, acting, and improv.
Our choir program offers students the chance to learn to use and improve their innate talent for singing and vocal work. All students may participate in choir regardless of their level of training.
Upper School Performing Arts Highlight Reel: "Almost, Maine"
Kristin Engineer
Director of Performing Arts
Clement Cano
Director of Musical Arts
Catherine Garnier
Director of Design & Innovation Labs (Upper School)
Susie Heeter
JK-2nd Grade Art Teacher
Tanner Oertel
MS & US Theater Director
Grace Trout Alexandrou
JK-1st Grade Music Teacher