St. Mark's School

Throughout the COVID era, the arts at St. Mark's have continued to thrive curricularly. Arts Department head Chris Kent is teaching theater arts remotely, while Director of Music James Wallace has been working diligently with St. Mark's students, producing music for regular chapel services, the uniquely virtual 2020 Lessons & Carols service, and some wonderful a capella vocal productions. The visual arts, taught by faculty veterans Barbara Putnam and Aggie Belt, have been particularly impressive. Ms. Belt's sculptors have created "cultural unity vessels" in which students combine pottery styles from different cultures to produce unique objects. There was also an extraordinarily creative output from Ms. Putnam's studio artists this fall and leading up to the Christmas break. The vast majority of these artistic endeavors have taken place remotely, so it is exciting to realize that the arts at St. Mark's are thriving despite all challenges.

This fall, veteran art teacher Barbara Putnam—entering her 42nd year on the St. Mark's faculty—assumes the mantle of Senior Teacher. This is an historic transition for the School, as Ms. Putnam will be the first woman to hold that title in the 150-plus-year history of St. Mark's.

On February 3, 155 students and faculty members will be going on the annual St. Mark's opera trip in New York.

On Saturday, September 21, Anishka Yerabothu '20 presented "A Kathak Showcase" in the Putnam Family Arts Center. The event was a fundraiser for Educate Lanka, a program providing support to Sri Lankan students, where Anishka volunteered this past summer.

The first-ever St. Mark's Arts Fair delighted a large crowd of students and adults on Saturday evening, May 18. The inaugural event was organized and hosted by the Monitors.

Four St. Mark's students have been accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators All-State Music Festival. Violinist Waverly Shi '21 (pictured here), violinist Richard Zhang '22, Sophia Liu '19 (flute), and Grace Li '21 (flute) faced a series of challenging auditions to achieve All-State recognition.

The Class of 1945 Hall in St. Mark's Putnam Family Arts Center is one of the most acoustically perfect halls in the entire Boston area. In 2018-19 it will be new home of the Symphony Pro Musica, with four concerts by them this season, one including the New World Chorale, part of the new SOUTHBOROUGH SOUNDS concert series at St. Mark's.

On the afternoon of Saturday, May 19, during Reunion Weekend, veteran SM art teacher Aggie Belt and several of her students hosted the annual Empty Bowls sale to help the hungry.

St. Mark's alumna Amanda Abend '14 (pictured at right making final adjustments to one of her gowns) was recently winner of the Saks Fifth Avenue 2018 Emerging Designer Award at the Washington University Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts' 89th annual Spring Fashion Design Show.

Ron Rosenstock has been creating images of the world and its people since the 1950's. His photography has had many incarnations from vivid colors to black and white, from the darkroom to digital, from large format cameras to full-frame digital, from early dawn to infrared dusk. At a reception in Taft Hall on Monday, November 13, St. Markers were introduced to his work with an exhibition of his photographs from Iceland.