Beyond the Canvas: Brentwood Arts Foundation

16 April 2025Pin T, Mackenzie ‘25, Arts Foundation Captain 2025

Tucked away in a classroom at the back of the Arts building, Arts Foundation students meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for an art immersion.

In the calm – and occasionally chaotic – environment of scratching pencils, scraping easels and surrounding chatter, students tread into new territories, exploring different mediums from acrylics to tempera paint to printmaking. This year, led by Ms Cappelletto, students have artistically evolved through a handful of individual projects.

One of the best aspects of Arts Foundation is the freedom of each assignment. One of the highlight projects in the fall was the Word Art, where students picked a word or short phrase and painted it with tempera paint against recycled canvases. Grade 11, Pik P claims, “This project took us from the convention that paintings should be of subjects or figures, to realizing that bold words can be just as powerful”. These eye-catching pieces can be seen displayed hanging from chains like vines above the staircase in the Arts Building.

Innovation blossomed in the winter term as students tackled their next task: redesigning their house mascot. They met with their inner designer to produce unique variations of their house icons and cut out inspiration from magazines to construct a mood board. After presenting the board to the class, students moved on to simplifying their creation into an icon, then created it with string on cardboard. Rolling on bright paints, they created stamps of their icon on paper. Finally, we were provided with a large sheet of fabric in which we transfered the design using acrylic paint and stencil, finishing off with a brand new house flag.

Starting their final term strong, we get to experience silkscreening our original designs and making our own wearable merch. With a generous selection of clothing to be repurposed (brought by Ms. Cappelletto from her old school) students are able to print their design on T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, and hats. Grade 12 student, Abby L, shares, “I like being able to express my creativity through something that is useful. Usually, we make paintings or pottery that just sit on the shelf, but I appreciate how this project is an opportunity to showcase my art by wearing the clothes I designed myself.”

At Brentwood, art classes provide a balance with the content-heavy academic courses where students can focus on expressing their personality in any way, shape or form they envision. Arts Foundation is a place where everyone is an artist – these open assignments encourage students to be creative, be bold, and be passionate through various forms of art.

Pin T, Mackenzie ‘25, Arts Foundation Captain 2025

Where Students Choose To Be