Welcome

We promote a shared vision within and across disciplines, valuing the perspectives and strengths that each individual brings to the environment. We include parents, community, and local resources to deepen the student experience at Nido. It is through collaboration that students understand that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Through reflection on the creative process, students learn to assess their own artistic development and to articulate opinions. We believe that this personal reflection opens students up to the constructive criticism that is essential for growth. Out of this critical thinking, creative solutions emerge, fostering an awareness of possibilities and a refined artistic expression.

Through creation of visual works of art, theater productions, dance, and music, students learn to express themselves and to communicate with others. Our artists learn that small changes in expression can result in major changes in human communication. We believe that artistic skills and knowledge liberate the student, so that they can experience freedom of personal expression and exploration of the self.

Through studying the arts, we refine our tastes, recognizing the timeless aesthetics of art and its effect on the human condition. In attempting to define beauty, we learn that our insight is not limited by language.

We recognize the courage necessary for creativity in performance and self–revelation in exhibition. We therefore believe in the importance of an environment in which students feel comfortable taking risks and pursuing ideas. Having high expectations and high engagement among students and faculty creates a culture of ambition and the possibility of true excellence.

We live in a complicated world, and through study of the arts at the Academy, students learn that many problems have more than one solution. Imagination allows students to free themselves of expected or obvious solutions, so that they may wonder, question, and innovate.

We believe that learning in the arts demands the ability to surrender to the surprises that reveal themselves as work unfolds. Nowhere in the arts is there a prescribed outcome; thus, through self-assessment and the limitations of the medium, students learn flexibility, resourcefulness, and willingness to alter course.

We believe it is necessary to engage students in such a way that they see that the arts are significant and necessary to a full life, improving and strengthening communities. Lifelong participation in the arts, whether as a profession or as personal enjoyment, can provide enduring intellectual and emotional fulfillment.