The fine arts department will be offering five new classes this upcoming school year and two more this upcoming summer.

Drama will add “Introduction to Improvisation,” a class geared toward teaching students techniques in improv. While art will be adding four class, three Advanced Placement offerings and one additional class in photography. Students will have the opportunity to “Photography,” “AP Studio Art 2-D: Design,” “AP Studio Art 3-D: Design” and “AP Studio Art: Drawing.” These new courses bring excitement to the department because they can offer more for students interested in the arts.

“It is awesome that the district is offering new courses to allow for our students to experience the arts,” said Teddy. “We are giving the students the opportunity to get what they want.”

Two more classes will be added to the summer school curriculum: “Guitar” and “Animation.”

“Guitar and animation will be offered in the summer,” said Teddy. “By offering these two classes in the summer session, we are giving our students an opportunity to be enriched in the arts all year round.”

The addition of these classes are just a few of the new offerings District 117 will be adding for the 2014-2015 school year.

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Recently, the fine arts department proposed new classes for next school year. The new courses will go through a 3-step process in which the principals, department chairs, parents and students evaluate which courses should be selected.

The music department proposed a semester-long guitar class and an independent winds class.

The art department proposed Advanced Placement classes for 2-D and 3-D Art.  Other classes being considered are photography and animation, which will teach students to create claymation and computer animation respectively.

For all the ACHS thespians, an improvisational theater class was proposed as well. Improvisational theater is a performance where most or all of what is performed is created on the spot as it is performed.

The last of these classes being contemplated would give students who have taken two years of a fine arts course an honors credit for the subsequent courses they take. Colleges are putting more emphasis on students who are experienced and excel at humanities, so this would be beneficial for impassioned, dedicated students in the realm of fine arts.