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Creative Arts and Design

Mercy High School’s Creative Arts and Design Pathway Program combines creativity, ideas, imagination, and self-expression to encourage young women to problem solve through a variety of art forms including art, drama, dance, painting, music, design, and graphic design. The Study of Creative Arts and Design is critical to the world as it supports the development of many crucial life skills such as emotional intelligence, confidence, discipline, creativity, commitment, and problem-solving.

 

Relation to Girls' Education

There is an underrepresentation of women across the fields that lie within the art industry.

Today women remain dramatically underrepresented and undervalued in museums, galleries, and auction houses. 

  • Three of the most-visited museums in the world, the British Museum (est. 1753), the Louvre (est. 1793), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (est. 1870) have never had female directors.

  • Nearly half (45.8%) of visual artists in the United States are women; on average, they earn 74¢ for every dollar made by male artists.

  • There are no women in the top 0.03% of the auction market, where 41% of the profit is concentrated. Overall, 96% of artworks sold at auction are by male artists.

  • The NEA found that as women artists age, they earn progressively less than their male artist counterparts. Women artists aged 55–64 earn only 66¢ for each $1 earned by men.

  • Women make up a majority of professional art museum staff; despite recent gains, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions.

There is an underrepresentation today of women in photography. A majority of recent photography graduates consisted of women, but they earn, on average, 40% less than their male counterparts. Similarly, it was found that less than 25% of the commercial photographers represented by the industry’s leading agents are female.

  • Women also remain underrepresented in the ballet world; despite the fact that women fill the stage, they are missing from leadership positions in the ballet world:
    • At the largest 50 ballet companies in the United States, 71 percent of artistic directors from founding to present have been men.
    • Worldwide, the odds that an artistic director of a major ballet company will have a female successor are just 29 percent.

The Creative Arts and Design Program will engage students in the core elements of design through both technical and practical skills. This program will focus on using various forms of media to promote self expressions and creativity. Mercy will foster the creativity and leadership within our students so they can bring these skills confidently into the world and their careers. 

Relevance to Today’s World

In August of 2002 an article was written in Forbes about the $192 Billion Dollar Gender Gap in Art. This article cites that “despite the bias against female artists, there is a growing interest in acquiring art by women, and the prices of works by female artists are starting to reflect this trend.”

Program Requirements

  • 4 Years in the Arts

  • 4 Years of English

  • Attendance in Online Art Course

  • Women in the Arts Trends Workshop

  • Graphic Design Workshop

  • Creative Arts and Design Mentor

  • Participation in California College of the Arts (CCA) Youth Programming 

  • Attendance at Creative Arts and Design Speaker Series 

  • Creative Arts and Design Capstone Project and Portfolio

Sample Courses & Workshops

  • AP Art
     
  • Ceramics 
     
  • 2D Art
     
  • 3D Art
     
  • Dance
     
  • Chorus
     
  • Band
     
  • Comics: Graphic Novels and Webtoons
     
  • Fashion Design
     
  • Photography 
     
  • Yearbook
     
  • Creative Writing
     
  • Animation
     
  • Character Development
     

Sample Careers 

  • Museum Curator

  • Art Director

  • Art Teacher

  • Architect 

  • Fashion Designer

  • Game Designer 

  • Animator

  • Photographer 

  • Video Designer

  • Film Producer