Where Creativity Meets Innovation: New Visual Arts Electives Bring Ideas to Life
This year, Archmere students are exploring new ways to create, design, and solve problems through two new Visual Arts electives taught by Dr. Silverman ’00. Architectural Design and Mixed Media offer students opportunities to work with both traditional and emerging techniques while developing creative skills that extend well beyond the art studio.
Building Ideas in Architectural Design
In the new Architectural Design elective, students in grades 10–12 are beginning with the fundamentals of technical model making as they explore structures and forms in foamcore in preparation for their first architectural models.
The course emphasizes technical skills, applied creative problem-solving, and an awareness of the environmental impact of the built environment. Through hands-on projects, students are learning to consider not only what they want to create, but also how their designs interact with their surroundings and respond to real-world challenges.
The course will also connect students with professional expertise beyond the classroom. In November, Sean Goodrick ’97, a licensed architect, Archmere alumnus, and member of Archmere’s Board of Trustees, will visit the class to provide feedback on students’ architectural designs.
This opportunity gives students a chance to experience the design process from a professional perspective and engage with an Archmere alumnus who has built a career in the field.
From Gelli Plates to Photoshop
Students in the new Mixed Media elective are also discovering what happens when traditional and digital art-making techniques come together.
Students began by experimenting with gelli plate printmaking, exploring texture, layering, and image-making through a hands-on process. They then took advantage of a beautiful fall day to experiment with cyanotype printing, one of the oldest photographic processes.
Using iron-based chemical paper and the sun’s UV light, students created cyanotypes featuring botanical objects collected from Archmere’s Patio gardens. The process allowed them to transform natural forms into striking photographic compositions while experiencing a historic image-making technique firsthand.
The students then brought their work into the digital realm, using Adobe Photoshop to blend their gelli plate prints and cyanotypes with photographs. By layering and digitally manipulating their images, they created abstract compositions that combine high-tech and low-tech approaches to image making.
Creativity Across Disciplines
While Architectural Design and Mixed Media explore very different creative processes, both courses encourage students to experiment, solve problems, and think about how different tools and ideas can work together. Whether constructing a physical architectural model, creating an image with sunlight, or combining analog artwork with digital technology, students are learning that creativity is not limited to a single medium or approach.
These new electives give Archmere students the opportunity to create, experiment, and think like artists and designers, while connecting their classroom experiences to the world beyond the studio.
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In the new Architectural Design elective, students in grades 10–12 are beginning with the fundamentals of technical model making as they explore structures and forms in foamcore in preparation for their first architectural models.
The course emphasizes technical skills, applied creative problem-solving, and an awareness of the environmental impact of the built environment. Through hands-on projects, students are learning to consider not only what they want to create, but also how their designs interact with their surroundings and respond to real-world challenges.
The course will also connect students with professional expertise beyond the classroom. In November, Sean Goodrick ’97, a licensed architect, Archmere alumnus, and member of Archmere’s Board of Trustees, will visit the class to provide feedback on students’ architectural designs.
This opportunity gives students a chance to experience the design process from a professional perspective and engage with an Archmere alumnus who has built a career in the field.
From Gelli Plates to Photoshop
Students in the new Mixed Media elective are also discovering what happens when traditional and digital art-making techniques come together.
Students began by experimenting with gelli plate printmaking, exploring texture, layering, and image-making through a hands-on process. They then took advantage of a beautiful fall day to experiment with cyanotype printing, one of the oldest photographic processes.
Using iron-based chemical paper and the sun’s UV light, students created cyanotypes featuring botanical objects collected from Archmere’s Patio gardens. The process allowed them to transform natural forms into striking photographic compositions while experiencing a historic image-making technique firsthand.
The students then brought their work into the digital realm, using Adobe Photoshop to blend their gelli plate prints and cyanotypes with photographs. By layering and digitally manipulating their images, they created abstract compositions that combine high-tech and low-tech approaches to image making.
Creativity Across Disciplines
While Architectural Design and Mixed Media explore very different creative processes, both courses encourage students to experiment, solve problems, and think about how different tools and ideas can work together. Whether constructing a physical architectural model, creating an image with sunlight, or combining analog artwork with digital technology, students are learning that creativity is not limited to a single medium or approach.
These new electives give Archmere students the opportunity to create, experiment, and think like artists and designers, while connecting their classroom experiences to the world beyond the studio.
Archmere Academy is a private, Catholic, college preparatory co-educational academy,
grades 9-12 founded in 1932 by the Norbertine Fathers.
grades 9-12 founded in 1932 by the Norbertine Fathers.
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