Arts

Creating wonder & performing well: 
The Arts at Newark Academy

For Newark Academy students, the arts take many forms—from a vase spinning into shape on a potter’s wheel or a harmony coming together in a jazz band rehearsal, to patterns traced by dancers’ feet along a stage or tapped out by a graphic designer’s fingers across a keyboard. 

Artistic endeavors also perform many vital educational and developmental functions at NA.  Our arts courses, events, programs, and facilities offer a vital means of self-expression, an important source of cultural information, and an inspiring brush with beauty. By creating their own works and exploring those of others, our students cultivate emotional intelligence, human empathy, interpretive and analytical skills, and communications capacities that enhance their academic performance—and enrich their lives.

For Middle School students, the arts are an essential and required aspect of the curriculum. As student progress to the Upper School, they have options to continue exploring a wide range of artistic offerings or to focus on one or two key areas of artistic expression by pursuing arts courses that are a part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

The NA Art Department encompasses many disciplines, including:

Meet the Faculty

List of 11 members.

  • Photo of Viraj Lal

    Viraj Lal 

    Chair, Arts Department; Choral Music
  • Photo of Jack Bender

    Jack Bender 

    Choral Music, Collaborative Pianist
  • Photo of Elaine Brodie

    Elaine Brodie 

    Visual Arts
  • Photo of Daniel Gold

    Daniel Gold 

    Film
  • Photo of Oliver Hagen

    Oliver Hagen 

    Instrumental Music - Orchestra
  • Photo of Elise Pacicco

    Elise Pacicco 

    Dance Teacher
  • Photo of Rachel Shapiro Cooper

    Rachel Shapiro Cooper 

    Theatre Arts, Pre-Orientation Director
  • Photo of Julius Tolentino

    Julius Tolentino 

    Instrumental Music - Jazz/Wind Ensemble
  • Photo of Jay Torson

    Jay Torson 

    Visual Arts
  • Photo of James Worrell

    James Worrell 

    Photography
  • Photo of Daniel Viola

    Daniel Viola 

    Technical Theater
An independent school for students in grades 6-12