Chris Love, a Rivers visual arts faculty member, pioneered an Editorial Cartoon unit at Rivers that has Middle School art students thinking critically about the world around them. Tailored specifically towards his eighth-grade art students, Editorial Cartoon is a brief yet impactful exercise designed to engage students in social and political discourse through artwork. The primary objective is to create a platform for students to reflect on the causes they care about and find a way to voice thoughts and opinions through art.

Each year, Rivers hosts four student art shows: a fall all-student exhibition showcasing Upper and Middle School artwork from the previous spring, an Upper School student show at the start of the second semester highlighting fall semester work, a Middle School art show in May, and a senior show running concurrently. On February 18, a gallery reception introduced a variety of student work across a wide range of mediums that span the entire arts curriculum, including the Foundation courses, Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Mindfulness in Drawing, Ceramics, Sculpture, Photography, and Identity and Reality: Cinematic Production and Critical Studies. The exhibit, on display in the Bell Gallery and the Baldwin Family Art Commons through April 17th, is a vibrant and inspirational experience.

At Rivers, students have the opportunity to express themselves through a variety of creative outlets, from writing to visual arts. This creativity was recognized when the Massachusetts results of the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition were announced on January 29. Competing at a high level in this prestigious program, Rivers students created memorable works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Thirty-nine works of visual art by Rivers students were honored this year, along with five pieces garnering awards in the writing categories.