Arts

Other schools cut the arts. We built a center for them

At Highland, the arts aren't a frill or a fallback. They're core to who we are. While schools across the country slash arts budgets, we double down — because creative thinking, bold expression, and the courage to perform shape the kind of people we want our students to become.

This is where imagination gets serious.

The arts aren't optional. They're who we are

Plenty of schools treat the arts as an extra. We treat them as essential.

Every Lower and Middle School student studies visual art and music as part of the daily curriculum, not once in a while, but multiple times per week. Our youngest students pick up wind instruments, play xylophone, and sing in a chorus. By the time they reach Middle School, they're choosing their instruments and finding their voices. And by Grade 9, they walk into the Upper School hungry for more.

None of this is an accident. It's a commitment we've made and never wavered on.

A center built to take creativity seriously

The Michael A. Hughes Center for the Arts is proof of how much we believe in this work.

Named for our long-time Artistic Director, Mike Hughes, the center gives student artists real spaces for real creative work:

The Rice Theater: a state-of-the-art performance space where students take the stage multiple times a year.
The Lise Hicklin Black Box Theater: an intimate 60-seat venue, home to monthly Coffeehouse performances where Upper School students try new material in front of a supportive crowd.
A spacious art gallery where visual arts students exhibit the work they're proudest of.
Dedicated studios for 2D art, 3D art, ceramics, and graphic design.

These aren't makeshift corners. They're spaces designed for students who take their craft seriously. Even if they never knew the arts would be important to them.

Real classes. Real range. Real skill

We don't offer a token art elective and call it a day.

Highland students study ceramics, 2D and 3D design, guitar, jazz, chorus, and graphics and sound design. These classes are taught by faculty who know their craft and know their students. Whether a child wants to throw clay, write a song, edit a film, or sing on stage, there's a path here built for them.

Some students stick with one passion and chase mastery. Others explore widely. Both come away more capable, more confident, and more themselves.

A school that doubles as a regional arts hub.

Highland isn't just a place where students perform. It's a venue that the whole region shows up for.

The Piedmont Symphony plays here. Community organizations host speakers here. And our own student productions draw audiences from well beyond campus. Over the years, the Michael A. Hughes Center for the Arts has become an arts destination in its own right, a place where student work and professional work share the same respected stage.

When your child performs at Highland, they perform somewhere that matters.