Visual Arts

Today’s visual age demands a comprehensive arts education, and we seek to shape a more intelligent, diverse, confident and creative adult in the modern world by investing in art education as essential learning.

A Lipscomb Academy student creates art in a crowded room

Art is about communication, creativity and cooperation, and by studying art your children will have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives and experience the world from a new perspective. Art gives them a language that cuts across the disciplines and helps them to see connections, bringing a more coherent meaning to the world.

At Lipscomb Academy your child learns the fundamentals of art in a creative environment and in the context of art history. The curriculum has strong connections with the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines and with the concept of experiment. The art program fosters their imagination, problem-solving and teamwork skills, the development of technique and their individual digital portfolios.

Your child will learn two-dimensional and three-dimensional design in a sequenced curriculum beginning in pre-kindergarten. All grade levels are taught by talented, passionate artists who teach that art reflects the Creator of it all.

Elementary Grades

The visual arts program at the elementary school involves every child and focuses on building creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills that equip your student for future real-world and educational experiences through art-making processes, art history, aesthetics and art criticism. A variety of media encourage your young artist to reach beyond ordinary art-making techniques. They will encounter paint, charcoal, oil pastels, clay, weaving/textile arts, printmaking and collage while becoming familiar with the elements of art and principles of design.

Middle Grades

The middle and high school art studios are located adjacent to one another to promote collaboration between instructors and access to shared resources such as kilns, a darkroom for traditional photography methods, computers for digital photography, and an outdoor deck area for work in natural lighting and ventilation. Middle schoolers have opportunities to take both broad exploratory classes and elective art classes to provide more in-depth experiences.

Upper Grades

High schoolers have the opportunity to take art classes each of the four years: Art I, semester courses in two-dimensional and three-dimensional, painting and photography and AP Studio Art for students who have met the necessary prerequisites. In addition, students have access each semester to art shows and lectures by professional artists from across the nation just by walking across campus to Lipscomb University’s John Hutcheson Gallery.

Throughout our art program there is an emphasis on "green" art, teaching the importance of being good stewards of our environment through responsible practices in recycling.

Erin Rickelton, art faculty, recognized as an outstanding educator.

Erin Rickelton was recognized in the 2020 Middle Tennessee Scholastic Art Awards as an outstanding educator whose dedication, commitment, and guidance were represented by student work selected for national honors.

Rickelton has taught art and journalism at Lipscomb Academy for the last 22 years. Since joining the fine arts department, she has been instrumental in adding nine classes to increase the fine arts knowledge of her students, including 2D design, 3D design, painting, independent drawing, photography, AP studio art, and senior show.

In 2000, after realizing that the academy did not have a platform for showcasing student artwork, Rickelton created and implemented a student art show that continues to this day.

Actively involved in multiple extracurricular activities with students, Rickelton created the Art Club and Service Club and together with Ginger Reasonover, Lower School science faculty, launched the Green Club and recycling program at the academy. In 2018, Rickelton received the Living Water Volunteer of the Year Award for her project to sell student-made artwork, primarily created from reclaimed wood and other repurposed materials, which raised approximately $10,000 to build multiple clean water wells around the world.

the dreamer, the Lipscomb Academy creative arts journal

a celebration of the imagination and creativity of the dreamer

Click to read each issue:

Christmas Cookies Baked and Iced by 6th Grader

Best in Show Christmas Cookies

The Great LA Baking Contest

The Art Club hosted a Christmas baking contest and invited all students, faculty, and staff to participate. Students from PreK to grade 12 participated. Best in Show was awarded to sixth-grader Olivia Darst. Ruby Vaughn, senior, was awarded second place, and sophomore Ella Thompson received third.