NBS Lectures on Art Competition

NBS Lectures on Art finalists presented their in-depth analysis on works of art by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Jacques-Louis David, Theodore Gericault, Caspar David Friedrich, and Augusta Savage last week, with the analysis of Friedrich's The Lonely Tree named the winner.

For this project, each eighth-grade student selects an important work of art or architecture and then prepares a formal analysis of it by means of a lecture and slideshow presentation. The finalists, selected by faculty judges and the headmaster, present their work to the eighth-grade girls of the Nightingale-Bamford School, as well as the seventh-grade boys of Saint David’s School and a panel of judges composed of art teachers, art historians, art consultants, heads of other schools, artists, architects, and other professionals in the world of art and technology.

This signature learning project unites curriculum and technology, in which digital elements assist in the attainment of a larger educational goal. In concept and execution, each NBS lecture is a work of balance. The assignment involves homework and classwork, research and reading, contemplation and discussion, and analysis and synthesis. It asks each student to engage in scholarly and creative thinking in order to invite others to reflect on the development of art, history, and humanity over time.