On the surface, students operating in the Fine Arts Department seem to be honing individual skills and doing it all for themselves. However, our department operates as a diverse group of students with a wide range of skills, who pride themselves in passing inspiration, guidance, and wisdom to all members. Without this phenomenon present, Brother Martin High School’s future art students would have difficulty maintaining excellence, tradition, and potential evolution on ideas of the past.
Within the Band Department, spring signals a change of leadership for the coming year. Underclassmen, led by the junior class who have observed and assisted the outgoing senior class all year, are busy auditioning, giving speeches, and showing their conducting abilities to be considered for officer positions. In our Crusader Band, the Drum Major is the top student leader who is chosen to lead the band in performance. He is an individual who we take great pride in, someone who represents the ideals from days past and hopes for the future, and who holds himself to a higher level as a bandsman. Other officers include Drum Captain, Band Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants. These positions have been held in high esteem since the band program began and have evolved based on the needs of our students. More responsibility has been placed on our students to make our performances successful, to make decisions about what music to play, to brainstorm ideas on how the band program can improve, and simply to take more responsibility for their band!
With the blessing of talented musicians in all grade levels, our leaders strive to collaborate with everyone to use their strengths to be successful. Performing a song for the first time is truly a team effort with bandsmen working to support each other, in spite of mistakes, to bring out eventual success on the piece.
Members of the Chorus are called upon to lead in many ways: as soloists in concerts or as cantors at Mass; as section leaders who ensure that their sections are performing not only the correct pitches and rhythms but with great attention to expression and musicality; as officers who help guide the group not only musically but philosophically; and as role models to the greater school community and beyond. One of the great joys of chorus is watching a student who joins the program in his 8th or 9th-grade year become not only an excellent musician but a strong leader as well. Although students choose many different career paths after high school, the lessons that they learn about teamwork, self-discipline, and attention to detail make them ideal leaders for the future.
Visual art often seems like a solitary endeavor, but in many ways, it is communal at Brother Martin. At its best, there is thoughtful interaction and encouragement among students. It is the quiet leaders, though, that by example show not only
artistic talent but focus and work ethic. Also, art can express positive messages through the mediums used. Mr. Guidry uses social justice leaders as a theme in his portrait project for Art I classes. This year the theme “Create to Motivate” was part of a scholarship competition in Art II and III, where students combined text with an image to convey a positive message to the viewer.
Our Dionysians also used performance as a way to develop leadership skills, gaining confidence and self-awareness to better express ideas. Also, troupe student leaders directed their fellow Dionysians in a full length drama, as well as individual acts featured in Music for the Missions, the yearly fundraiser for Mission Amatongas.
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We are very proud to announce that Mr. David Joyner will become the Fine Arts Department Chair beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. Mr. Joyner brings a sense of enthusiastic consideration of our evolving department. We feel that he has been ready for this responsibility for a long time, and we look forward to improving areas of our department such as scheduling, course offerings, observations, and collaboration.
