By Elle Everett
Photo by Elle Everett
Willow isn’t just an academic school, It’s also an arts school for students wanting to create a different path in life. OUr CAVA program lets students try out different mediums of art and experiment with their creativity. This is all to help them find the artist they want to be.
CAVA has four levels. Everyone starts at level 1, and, as they go up in grades, they become more independent for each CAVA assignment. CAVA 1 is the first level and is mainly for freshmen and beginners, whereas CAVA 4 is the highest level and is taken by seniors. They have the most freedom when it comes to the art they create. A perk is that every level gets their art hung in hallways at one point to show off their abilities.
So, how do you know if you want to pursue visual arts as a CA and dedicate all that time to this one pursuit? What kind of student is this suited for?
“I’ve always enjoyed visual arts growing up,” Oona Cuzon, a sophomore in CAVA 2 at Willow, said, “In a household where my mother was either sewing, painting, or photography, I was bound to love art.”
Programs like CAVA are essential for students to find ways to express themselves around people like them. So, do you get to choose your own ideas for what to create? What are the guidelines given, and how strict are they for the different mediums of art?
“We are given some freedom as to what we want to create, but it has to follow the guidelines given to us by our teacher,” said Elsa Rumbley, a sophomore in CAVA 2.
How does the grading in CAVA work? Does it depend on the amount of talent or the idea? Should grades be given based on how talented you are because of the level of visual arts you are in?
“I believe that our artwork is graded based on how well we follow the directions,” Arrolyn Plonka, a Sophomore in CAVA 2 at Willow said, “and less on how talented we are in art, but more so just direction following.”
Students learn how to critique their own artwork, as well as their other classmates. With this skill, they become more independent in knowing how to follow guidelines and correct each other along the way.
“I think everyone is on a spectrum of ‘naturally talented’,” Laeyrd Rich, a sophomore in CAVA 2 at Willow said, “but I do also think that it took me a lot of time and practice to get where I am now.”
For students like Layer, Elsa, Oona, and Arrolyn, CAVA isn’t just a normal academic class. It’s where they get to express themselves and find what they are passionate about in an otherwise very busy academic day. With CAVA, they learn about the artist they want to be and are given a pathway to becoming that artist.
