What is the purpose of a college-prep school teaching someone how to join and finish a piece of wood or weld a metal joint? What relevance does hands-on work play in a world that seeks efficiency through data, machine learning, and automation? Do experiential projects help support emotional balance and mental wellbeing? Shouldn't a shop space and its instructors work daily to break damaging stereotypes around who is comfortable and who is thriving while learning tools and processes? Shouldn't technical skills be co-equal, at least, with being a good collaborator and self-aware person? These are a few questions that guide our work in the Technical and Creative Arts Department.

Our Arts in Wood, Metal, Digital Fabrication and Aviation are a place to skill up and connect with your and your peers' humanity. It's a place to learn about designing, prototyping, and building things together that bring joy, confidence, and meaning. Regardless of future study or career, Technical Arts classes teach students about project management, working in teams across differences, persistence in the face of challenge, being resourceful, object and experience design, and craftspersonship. Our classes emphasize hard and soft skills and help form whole and flexible young adults, of all identifiers, for a changing world.