This week, we will continue our spotlight on the Visual Art Program at Henrico High School’s Center for the Arts (CFA)! If you missed the last installment, we discovered that the CFA has been offering art classes in the Visual Art program since 1995, but what exactly is it that the art students are learning at the Center? Well, let’s take a look!

Genevieve Dowdy is the teacher for levels I and III (freshmen and juniors, respectively) and Ms. Scurlock teaches levels II and IV (sophomores and seniors, respectively). Each class level in the CFA equips students with different essential aspects of art education each year—it all starts freshman year with a firm education in the foundations of art, including a time which students affectionately call “drawing boot camp.”

Sophomores continue to build and add to their repertoire of artistic skills, exploring a broad range of media and techniques throughout the year, and juniors spend their year refining their personal style and beginning to develop as individual artists. Students’ CFA education culminates with their senior year, a year when the students engage in independent study, making art without the constraints of class assignments—this gives students time to continue their artistic development and to build a cohesive portfolio of work.

The CFA Visual Art program is also unique among other art departments in Henrico County in that it offers students access to visiting guest artists who actually come to the classes and work with the students in a variety of areas.

Thanks to an ever-increasing number of applicants, the Visual Art department of the CFA is growing in quantity as well as quantity every year! Please join us in our next installment as we take a look at the CFA Musical Theatre department in our December spotlight!