Parisa Afsharian ’19: While the Episcopal art program is filled with state of the art equipment, materials, and costumes, students are often unsure of what supplies they can and cannot access. Recently, some students have been denied access to use these materials for their senior day posters. Dallas Ryan ’18 recalls, “A couple of girls and I went to an art teacher asking for paper to make posters for senior day for cross country. She told us we weren’t allowed to use them [posters] and made us go to the school store to buy poster board.” She continued, “I was told that if we kept using the supplies there would be none left for their classes”
One would assume that a reason to deny non-art usage of the supplies may be that the department would like to utilize all funding in the most productive way possible. To elaborate on the funding of the Art department Delvin Dinkins, Head of Upper School, commented, “We have a pretty substantial budget for arts, and probably of all the curricular areas, it has the largest budget. Art has funding in three distinct areas- visual arts, music, and theatre and dance.” He continued, “It’s not only funding for materials and supplies but also for gallery work, guest artists, and this type of funding is not something we have with other departments.”
When asked to comment, David Sigel, Art Department Chair, added, “As we go into an unknown economic future, we have been asked to be more mindful of the way we are allocating resources.”
Dan Clay, Theater and Dance Chair, elaborated in saying, “Like all departments, the Business Office approves a budget that our department submits every year. Some of that budget comes from anticipated revenue from productions, such as plays or musicals.”
In regard to using props and costumes for non-theater related endeavors, Clay reflected on the ability of students to use almost all of the resources. He reflected, “We have a system in place for students to borrow costumes and props. We ask that students make an appointment with a member of the Theater and Dance faculty ahead of time if they’d like to borrow costumes, but they are there for everyone to use. Occasionally, students will reserve our spaces for rehearsals and events outside of our department.” He continued, “Although the department tries to be as accommodating as possible, the students also have to be considerate that they are using art supplies. The only situation in which we might have to refuse is if a space, costume, or prop, etc. is already being used for a production.”
Responding to this claim, Sigel explains, “Unlike costumes in the theater department, poster board, once used, cannot be used again.”
These resources, while available to all students, are not generally used for large, school wide projects. The larger school wide projects are funded through other means. An example is the lounge decorating spirit week competition, where each grade gets a set budget of one hundred dollars to decorate their lounge. Dinkins reflected “Those materials are purchased separately. That is a different student activity budget, and in fact I fund those purchases in terms of art supplies.”
In addition to the supplies, the arts at EA have always been diverse, with many activities from students and guests showcased through art, using the budget. “At this moment, we have the most active gallery than we have ever had, with musicians, artists, and staff members. We are also currently building an outdoor art classroom,” said Dinkins regarding current endeavors for the art department. With EA arts on the rise and adequate funding for various arts programs, students can communicate with faculty to explore opportunities to use resources further.