Visual & Performing Arts

Urban’s Visual and Performing Arts Department seeks to create opportunities for students to identify their creative impulses and act upon them with intent, patience and perseverance. Our assignments are designed to help students achieve aesthetic awareness and technical proficiency. We ask students to become more aware by delving deep into their own experiences of life, and bring aspects of themselves into their work.

Our objective is to mentor young artists, performers and musicians, to invite exploration of multiple disciplines, and to experience the interplay of art forms. We encourage our students to develop a versatility and fluency among varying modes of expression and to discern the appropriate medium for a given endeavor.

In each project, students use their imagination, intellectual and emotional awareness, instrument, body or voice as the impetus for creative expression. Students develop conceptual thinking while mastering craftsmanship. We encourage students to take risks and to be open to the incidents and accidents of the creative process. Students assume group/ensemble responsibilities and/or leadership roles, actively engaging in collaborative work.  We expect students to graduate with an expanded understanding of themselves as artists, performers and musicians with the ability to rework, present and critique with an awareness of history and aesthetics.