Performing Arts
Performing music, leading worship, and staging a theater production all support emotional and social well being for both participants and audience members.
Theater performances in the fall included the K-5 annual dessert theater and the high school staging of Our Town. EMHS students also staged the musical Godspell Feb. 10-12 with a pit orchestra. Middle school students will perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream May 5 and 6.
Band, Orchestra and the choirs perform in a concert at the end of each trimester. Tour and Chamber Choirs lead worship in area churches and on a week-long trip in the spring. They also perform in community settings, such as a Rotary Club meeting. Find their schedule at easternmennonite.org/touring-choir
Visual Arts
The “Belonging Mandala” project is an example of how art class can support emotional and social well being. The middle school project begins with students creating a piece that represents themselves. Next, trios of students work on a piece that depicts things they have in common and what is different. Finally, the projects are combined into one circular piece representing the group. Gini Trotter, counselor, then leads a discussion about what it means to belong.
As people created in the image of God, students explore and express their reactions to the world, their family, and the faith they are developing through art classes in grades K-12. Creating art stimulates lateral thinking and develops persistence, reinforces a healthy self-concept, and opens the door to future creative pursuits.
Elementary classes create a collaborative work of art each year that is raffled off to parents and made into notecards. All K-8 students are exposed to foundations in art and various mediums. High school students choose electives including digital photography, digital drawing, stained glass, printing, ceramics, advanced water color, and more.
