the arts
Explore your ideas and find your passions
The arts at Darrow are not electives bolted onto the schedule—they are a working practice at the center of how students learn to think, make, and see. Our campus was home to the Shakers, a community that approached craft with intention, restraint, and a refusal to produce anything without purpose. That discipline still shapes the studios here. It isn’t nostalgia. It’s muscle memory in the walls.
You work in spaces built for making. Workshops, light, tools that hold up to real use. Clay dust under your nails. Prints drying on racks. The kind of environment that makes it obvious when you’re phoning it in. You will not be asked to decorate a hallway. You will be asked to look harder, try again, and follow an idea past the point where most people stop. That is the point.
What That Actually Looks Like
You're not squeezing art into a 45-minute period between math and history. At Darrow, you're taking Studio Art, Advanced Mixed Media, Ceramics and 3D Design, Darkroom Photography, Digital Art, Music, Theater—whatever pulls you.
You're working in actual studios. With actual equipment. Learning from teachers who are artists themselves—people who've lived the creative life you're imagining for yourself.
And here's what matters: you're not alone anymore. You're surrounded by other students who actually care about their work. Who get why you stayed up until 2am finishing that piece. Who want to see what you made.
Did you know?
Research shows studying the arts may not only help students with grades, but it is linked to social and emotional development and a whole range of higher thinking skills.
The Shaker Legacy Lives On
Our historic campus was home to the Shakers, whose design aesthetics influenced generations of artists worldwide. That same obsession with beauty, craft, and purpose flows through everything we do. Your child won't just learn in classrooms—they'll absorb creativity from the walls themselves.
"Darrow is Ranked one of the best high schools for arts in America."–Niche 2022 and 2023 Best Schools and Districts Rankings
Come see the studios. Meet the teachers. Talk to students who actually go here. See if it feels right. Because here's what we've learned: when a creative student finds the right environment, everything changes. Not just their work—them.
