Providing students the opportunity to discover their creative identities.
Lower School Visual Arts
We know the arts play a special role in a child’s personal, academic and creative development. Our young artists are discovering their creative identities every day, both during the academic day and in after-school activities which enrich their days at the lower school. Your children will enjoy their arts experience so much they won’t even realize they’re learning design concepts, problem-solving and basic art history!
Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment
The Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment was launched in 2021. It recognizes the school’s impressive K-12 visual arts department by providing resources to inspire and enhance the educational experience of Harker’s visual art students. “This endowment will strengthen the school’s connection to the global art community by facilitating the expansion of our artist residency program,” said Joshua Martinez, visual arts department chair. “Our students will be able to work with a diverse group of artists who will open them up to new and exciting perspectives.”
The endowment’s inaugural event was the residence in January 2022 of Britta Clausnitzer, an artist, curator and museum educator living and working in Berlin.
2025-26 Dickinson Artist-In-Residence: Ana Teresa Fernández
Ana Teresa Fernández is an artist of fluencies. A student of linguistics, she speaks five languages. An artist of border erasure, she elevates the intersectionality of place, person, and politics to create a common human vernacular. Time-based actions and social gestures are her syntax. Land, history, gender, climate, and culture are her subjects. Performance, video, photography, painting, and sculpture become her dynamic tools of grammar. Born in Tampico, Mexico, Fernandez grew up in California and makes her home in San Francisco. She has created residencies and public work in Haiti, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico and throughout the United States.
Visual Arts Teachers
Both of our lower school art teachers have degrees in visual arts. They are dedicated to sharing their passion for art, art history and mixed media with our budding artists, helping students master art techniques while also finding their unique creative expression.