Art experiences are offered to the children daily in their classrooms. In addition, the art teacher visits each pre-kindergarten class once a week, and the children in the kindergarten go to art class every week for one semester. The goal of the art program is to help children create and respond to meaning in visual imagery. This is a gradual process, which starts very gently in the early years with the emphasis on learning and using the basic materials for drawing, collage, painting, construction, and clay.

The art program at Heschel Lower School is designed to encourage children to visually express their ideas and feelings. As children develop they learn to explore a variety of materials and to use line, color, and shape to organize and create original work. They also learn to appreciate different artistic styles as they explore the work of established artists. These early art experiences become the foundation for increasingly complex subject matter as the children use paint, clay, collage, drawing, and construction techniques. Teachers guide children to develop their skills, to recognize their individual strengths, and to take risks to overcome difficulties as they arise. Museum trips provide another means of stimulating discussion and opening children's eyes to new ways of seeing the world and expressing themselves.

Abraham Joshua Heschel’s advice for young people was to build a life as though it were a work of art. In the Middle School art program we build works of art. The emphasis is on the process, rather than the end result. Risks are celebrated as often as successes. Our hope is that the joy will be the journey. Over the three years, the Middle School student is introduced to the following materials: pencil, pen and ink, tempera, acrylic and watercolor paints, gouache, cut paper, magazine and hand-painted paper collage, clay, block print, wood, and wire. Students work from their imagination, from models, from still life and from memory.

The Visual Arts department is rooted in the school’s vision that the discovery of personal meaning and the growth of individual identity can emerge from the rigors of study, of student centered inquiry and the development of a sensitive eye, a discerning mind and skillful hand.

We start with the notion that learning to work in either 2-D , 3-D, traditional or new media, is really a matter of learning to see correctly, deeply, and to value the possibilities and nuances that can be gained through honed observation. This awareness is nurtured through our studio art classes where students acquire a strong and broad foundation in visual concepts through drawing, painting, two-dimensional and three-dimensional design, ceramics, printmaking, illustration, sculpture, graphic design, digital media and digital photography.