the arts
AT MMFS

Lower school art classes encourage students to imagine, invent, and construct using a variety of media, including collage, clay, drawing, painting, and woodworking. They also study works from artists from a variety of cultures, especially as they relate to something they’re reading or studying in another class.

Every spring, students share their art projects with friends and family at our annual Arts Night.

Music and chorus classes at the lower school offer students a fun, relaxed way to be with each other—jamming to music, singing together, and playing freeze dance. At the same time, classes teach important developmental and social skills like taking turns, handling delicate things (like instruments), and cultivating body awareness. 

Younger students learn to use their voices in chorus, while our older students create music together in rock bands, where they learn to play guitar, bass, drums, or keyboard. All students perform for family and friends at various events throughout the year.

The middle school visual arts curriculum includes drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, woodworking, printmaking, and digital photography. Students learn to plan, execute, and evaluate their artwork with increasing sophistication, and are encouraged to discover their own way of making art. In the spring students share what they have accomplished with family and friends at our annual Arts Night.

Our Rock Band music curriculum makes every student a rock star. Each student learns an instrument  (guitar, bass, piano, and drums) or studies voice to form a rock band that performs at Music Night. Our music teachers offer optional private and small-group instruction for advanced musicians before and after school.

Every year the middle school puts on a full-scale musical theater production. Recent productions included Shrek the Musical Jr., Matilda, Jr. and The Wizard of Oz. Students participate on stage and backstage as part of the tech crew or design team. Students take a semester of performing arts class each year.

The upper school visual arts program is divided into three disciplines: Drawing and Painting, Ceramics and Sculpture, and Photography and Digital Art. Our spacious studios offer a variety of tools from the traditional (printing press, pottery wheels, and kiln) to the most up to date (Adobe multimedia suite). 

Every year our talented students enter their work in the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, garnering many Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and Honorable Mentions. All students share their art with family and friends at MMFS’s annual Arts Night, and seniors have a special opportunity to showcase their work at the Senior Art Show.

For students applying to competitive college arts programs, our talented and experienced arts teachers provide intensive training and portfolio development.

Students develop their musicianship in performance-based classes in which they strengthen their instrumental and vocal skills as members of small ensembles. Classes include Modern Band, Advanced Modern Band, Jazz Band, Strings Ensemble, and TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts). Clubs offer students additional opportunities to hone technical and performance skills. 

Twice a year student musicians showcase their talents at winter and spring Music Nights.

Students study the art of theater and performance technique in beginning, advanced, and on-camera acting classes. 

There are two main stage productions every year that showcase the considerable talents of our student actors. The fall production is a contemporary drama, comedy, or Shakespearean play. The spring focuses on a work from the American musical theater canon. These productions take place at the Mark O’Donnell Theater, a professional theater space in downtown Brooklyn. Recent productions have included The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, Godspell, and The Addams Family. Students also have multiple opportunities throughout the year to perform in MMFS’s Showcase Series, held in our intimate black box class space.