The Arts
Bosque School’s founder believed performing and visual arts are an essential part of every child’s education, and our commitment to the arts continues today. Our band, choir, drama, strings, technical theater, and visual art teachers work to develop confident students who exude joy and are willing to take risks to expand their skills. Teamwork, collaboration, and embracing challenges are the signatures of our arts program.
Students participate in a performing arts class for all three years of middle school. Not only do they develop fundamental skills, they also play in concerts, perform in shows, and learn to design and build sets. In the upper school, all students complete at least two more years of arts education, either in the performing or visual arts.
As students progress through our performing arts program, they grow in confidence as well as ability. Our music students regularly qualify for All-State competitions and have performed in venues ranging from Disneyland to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Our drama and theater tech students often bring home awards from state and national drama competitions, and many of our students remain involved in the performing arts beyond high school.
The visual arts have been a vital component of every Bosque School student’s education since our school’s inception. Technical skills are taught in a framework that includes creativity, play, and personal growth. Learning to see the world with the eyes of an artist teaches students to think critically, develop empathy, and connect more deeply with their community. In middle school, all students take three years of visual arts classes. The seventh-grade mosaic murals decorate buildings all over campus.
In the upper school, all students complete two additional years of either visual or performing arts, with many opting to take even more courses. After completing our basic foundations course, students pursue topics such as digital arts, ceramics, and advanced painting and drawing. By the time they graduate, all students have learned fundamental concepts of visual design while developing an appreciation for the importance of art as a means of understanding the world. Our most serious student-artists complete a senior portfolio and display it in a public venue. Many of our students continue their artistic studies in college.
Visual Arts
Seeing the world with the eyes of an artist teaches students to think critically, develop empathy, unlock their creativity, and connect more deeply with their community.
The visual arts department at Bosque School teaches technical skills in a framework that includes creativity, artistic exploration, and personal growth. In middle school, all students take three years of visual arts classes. We make this commitment because we recognize that the creative skills developed through the visual arts will serve our students well as they tackle big questions and challenges in whatever college and career path they choose.
In the upper school, all students complete two years of either visual or performing arts, with many opting to take additional elective courses. After completing our introductory Foundations course, students pursue topics such as digital arts, ceramics, and advanced painting and drawing. By the time they graduate, all students have learned the fundamental concepts of visual design while developing an appreciation for the importance of art as a means of understanding the world. Our most serious student artists complete a senior portfolio and display their portfolio work in a public venue. Many of our students continue their artistic studies in college.
Our campus has become home to many student art projects over the years, including our signature 7th-grade mosaics and ecologic and landscape murals that enhance our buildings. At Bosque School, our student artwork is not just displayed for a show but celebrated as part of the fabric of our community.
Three-week-long immersive courses (offered each May) provide additional opportunities for students to apply their visual arts passions, skills, and knowledge through interdisciplinary coursework. Some recent visual-arts-related immersives include Design Genius (middle school), Murals & Public Art (middle school), Voices & Images of New Mexico (upper school), Art & Social Justice (upper school), and Designing a More Sustainable Planet (upper school).
Seniors have the opportunity to deepen their commitment, knowledge, and expertise of the visual arts by choosing to ground their yearlong senior capstone research in the visual arts department. Some recent related capstone topics include:
- Body Image and Societal Expectations: An Artistic Counterscript
- People Cry, Laugh, and Get Angry in the Face of Art: A Deep Dive Into Humor Used in Art
- Not a Natural Disaster: An Artistic Exploration of Land, Culture, and Growth in Relation to the Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing and Usage in New Mexico and Japan
Extracurricular visual arts enrichments may include travel to the ISAS Arts Festival, Pottery Club, The Oracle (Bosque School’s creative magazine), and the Distinguished Artists Guild.
Performing Arts
Our band, choir, drama, strings, and technical theater programs develop confident performers and students who exude joy, collaborate effectively, and are willing to take risks to expand their skills.
Performing arts are a vital part of our school community and play an essential role in the learning experience of all students at Bosque School. As part of the core curriculum, performing arts classes engage students in content, technique, and skills to prepare them for a life-long love of learning in the arts. We provide students the opportunity to discover their passion, learn perseverance through practice, and become well-rounded students. All performing arts courses at Bosque School involve live performances — including opportunities to perform out-of-state and abroad — where students build self-confidence, learn teamwork, and develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments.
Because the arts are essential to Bosque School’s core curriculum, all middle school students study a performing art of their choice. Students in sixth and seventh grades may choose to study band, choir, drama, or strings in a year-long course. In eighth grade, students may also choose to study technical theater.
Upper school students are required to take two arts credits. Bosque School enjoys healthy participation in the upper school performing arts, and many students choose to exceed the required number of credits. Upper school students have several options to choose from, including technical theater, drama, Serenata (advanced auditioned string ensemble), Intermezzo (strings technique development and reading skills), wind ensemble (advanced auditioned wind ensemble), jazz band, Cantate (an auditioned advanced choral group), and voice class (a non-auditioned class that focuses on all styles of singing).
Students in both middle and upper school have the opportunity to participate in after-school performance opportunities, including the Mainstage drama production and a fully staged musical. Recent Mainstage productions include Macbeth, The Little Prince, and ¡BOCÓN! Recent musical performances include Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Students may also choose to participate in community blocks in middle school for advanced string players, all-state preparation for choir and strings, drama games, jazz band, pep band, and jam band.
Our choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, Disneyland, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Christ Church in Dublin, and Popejoy Hall right here in Albuquerque—all by invitation and audition. Our wind ensemble has consistently competed in the Cavalcade Music Festival and earned superior ratings. Recent jazz combos have performed at the New Mexico Music Educators Association All-State Festival and the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival in Prague, as well as opened for live touring acts at the African American Performing Arts Center. Our strings program regularly commissions new works by local composers, has performed at Disneyland, and traveled to Los Angeles to see performances led by the renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel. All of our performing ensembles have participated in the ISAS arts festivals with great success, and many of our students have gone on to pursue successful careers in the performing arts.
Three-week-long immersive courses (each May) offer additional opportunities for students to apply their performing arts passions, skills, and knowledge through interdisciplinary coursework. Some recent performing arts-related immersives include: Let’s New Mexi-Go! Showmakers (middle school), Filmmaking (upper school), and Pura Vida (upper school).
Seniors have the opportunity to deepen their commitment, knowledge, and expertise of the performing arts through their yearlong senior capstone research. Some recent related Capstone topics include:
- Strike a Chord: The Impact of Political Music on Public Perception.
- Every Movie, Everywhere, All At Once: Generational Worldviews in Coming of Age Films.
- Beating the Drum for Sound-Based Therapy: Sound Physics.
Many students also participate in extracurricular performing arts events. Bosque School has a vibrant and active Tri-M Music Honor Society that is comprised of students from all three music disciplines. This student-run chapter provides service opportunities for students to perform at the VA hospital around Veterans Day, at various medical centers throughout Albuquerque, and at venues for homebound patients. Bosque School’s Thespian Society includes students in the drama department and in the technical theater department. Members have participated in the New Mexico State Thespian Festival with great success and won a state championship during the 22/23 academic year for their one-act productions.
Our students have also traveled and participated in the TVI Actors Studio in Hollywood, California, where they attended film acting classes, workshops, and seminars with casting directors, talent agents, renowned actors, and drama educators in the industry. Tech students regularly attend the United States Institute of Theatre Technology. Tech students also put in many hours outside of school supporting our school-wide functions and have been invited to be the tech crew for TedX ABQ.