Upper School

Arts

This is where they stop practicing and start performing

It begins in Pre-K with wonder. It grows through years of class plays, first instruments, and early auditions. And it arrives here, in the Upper School, where a young artist finally steps into their full voice. This is where students master a craft, claim a creative identity, and discover the inner strength the arts have been building all along.

At Highland, that journey isn't a side note. It's a signature.

The arts build something that lasts

We don't educate halfway. The arts are as central to an Upper School education at Highland as AP coursework, athletics, or anything else we offer.

That conviction pays off in ways students often don't see until later. The confidence that was built on stage. The discipline learned in the studio. The well-roundedness that catches a college admissions officer's eye. As Artistic Director Michael Hughes puts it, "Students may not understand the long-term value of their involvement in the arts while they're doing it, but I hope they understand it when acceptance letters start coming in."

A 24,000-square-foot home for serious creativity

Most schools squeeze the arts into whatever space is left over. We built an entire center for them.

The Michael A. Hughes Center for the Arts spans 24,000 square feet of performance, rehearsal, exhibition, and studio space, and it's all dedicated to the work your child wants to do. It's not a hallway with a few easels. It's a real creative home, and students gravitate to it.

"Kids feel safe here," Mr. Hughes says. And when students feel safe, they take risks. They try. They go beyond their comfort zones and find something they didn't know they had.”

Fine arts taught by working artists

In the Upper School, visual art becomes a discipline and students learn it from people who live it.

Our 2D program builds classical drawing and painting skills in a studio designed to inspire: natural light, professional drawing tables, and views of the mountains that let students study color, light, and perspective without leaving their seats. From there, the path opens wide:

Beginning, intermediate, and AP courses in general art, drawing, painting, and design
Graphics and sound design in a fully equipped digital lab
Museum trips and artist studio visits that connect students to working professionals
Direct access to teachers' own projects, so students see real artists at work

This isn't a single elective. It's a genuine range of choices for students ready to commit to their craft.

A ceramics program unlike anywhere else

Highland devotes real resources to something many schools overlook: the chance to make things with your hands.

Learning from experienced and talented ceramists, our 3D arts program gives students something tangible and real to own. "Our students crave the chance to make things with their hands," says Upper School art teacher Lindesy Dengel ‘89. "Hard work, discipline, and passion, ceramics requires all of it. And it gives students a sense of self-worth. I see it in the studio every day."

For a student navigating the noise of high school, the clay is grounding. The work is honest. And the result is something they made, start to finish.

Two productions a year. One unforgettable stage

Every year, Highland mounts a fall play and a spring musical and the whole school shows up.

Recent productions tell the story: Camelot, Oliver, The Man of La Mancha, 1776. These aren't small affairs. They're a central part of the school's cultural and social fabric, supported by students, faculty, and families alike.

"Students are willing to try, and teachers encourage them to go beyond their comfort zones," Mr. Hughes says. "The self-exploration that comes with being on stage helps them find an inner fire. Once they find that fire, we help fan the flames."

And the stage isn't only for actors. Students run lights and sound, manage the stage, and build sets in the shop. Whatever pulls a student toward theater, there's a real role waiting for them.

Stages built for every kind of performer

The arts deserve professional spaces. At Highland, they have two. Click on the expanding boxes below to learn more:

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Meet Our Team

List of 3 members.

Michael Hughes

Artistic Director, Fine and Performing Arts Department Chair, Arts Certificate Coordinator
Lindsey Dengel 89

Upper School Art & Design
Benjamin Grove

Middle & Upper School Music

List of 2 items.

The Lise Hicklin Black Box Theater

The Lise Hicklin Black Box Theater offers a more intimate setting. In this flexible space, students experiment with innovative staging and work with the kind of equipment they'll encounter in college and community theaters down the road. It's also home to our monthly Coffeehouse — one Friday a month where students take the stage in front of a warm, supportive crowd and simply go for it.
The Rice Theater

The Rice Theater is a professional-level venue with lighting and sound equipment found in the finest theaters. With 355 seats, a flexible 24' x 26' performing space, generous wings, and a fully equipped stage shop that opens directly onto the stage, it's where plays, concerts, and assemblies come to life all year long.

Music for every kind of musician

The arts at Highland don't end with the visual or the theatrical. Upper School students keep growing through guitar, jazz, and choral programs and build on years of musical training that began back in third grade. Whether a student wants to play, sing, or both, there's a path that meets them where they are and pushes them further.

Make it official with an Arts Certificate

For students who want the arts at the center of their high school experience, Highland offers a dedicated Arts Certificate.

It's a way to commit, to go deep, and to graduate with real evidence of serious creative work. Add in our faculty-curated gallery exhibitions, which are held twice a year, with special opportunities for Upper School students to curate their own shows, and a young artist leaves Highland with a genuine body of work to show for it. Click here to learn more about our Certificate programs.

This is what the journey was building toward

The arts at Highland teach something that lasts far longer than any single performance.

"Participating in the arts gives our students confidence, an inner strength that very often they didn't know they had," Mr. Hughes says.

That's the heart of it. From a kindergartner's first class play to a senior's final bow in the Rice Theater, the arts here build whole people: confident, expressive, disciplined, and unafraid to put themselves out there. Some of our best actors are also our best students and finest athletes. They learn to manage it all, and they seek out every chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.

That's not a coincidence. That's a Highland education.

Come see them take center stage

There's only so much a page can tell you. The rest happens in the studios, the rehearsal rooms, and on the stage itself. Come visit, meet our faculty, and watch your child's next chapter come into focus.