SHL Arts Day
An arts program for homeschooled middle schoolers who want to create, perform, and develop their own artistic voices with friends. A day built around student-generated ensemble work across visual and performing arts.
Create, perform, and find your people.
SHL Arts Day
- Schedule: Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
- Open To: Currently enrolled SHL core students AND middle schoolers in the wider homeschool community
- Group Composition: Care is taken to ensure a positive, respectful, and creatively productive environment and community.
- Structure: Daily schedules are developed to offer both structure and space for student-driven goals. Each semester builds toward a culminating performance and art exhibition.
- Teaching Artists: A mix of consistent instructors, professional artists, and rotating residencies throughout the year.
A Day Built For and By Young Artists
SHL Arts Day is grounded in the belief that middle schoolers thrive when they have space to create, take risks, and express themselves—together and on their own terms. These years are a time of rapid social, emotional, and intellectual growth, fueled by curiosity and imagination. Middle schoolers have stories to tell, identities to explore, and talents to share—what better vehicle for that than the arts?
Students work independently and collaboratively, developing original ensemble work while exploring artistic ideas within a like-minded community. The structure allows students who prefer visual or performing arts to focus in their area of interest, while still allowing for natural overlap across disciplines.
A student deep in a theater project might find themselves contributing to set design; a visual artist might sketch costumes for a production taking shape around them.
While specific skills develop and tangible work is produced, this is not a class with a preconceived, adult-generated outcome. It is a creative community, with all the accountability and inspiration that comes from making meaningful work alongside people who share a vision.
Arts Area Possibilities
Performing Arts
- Band and ensemble music
- Musical theater
- Acting technique/Monologue study
- Singing and choral work
- Songwriting
- Dance and choreography
- Physical theater (mime, stage combat)
- Improvisation
- Directing
Visual, Studio, and Literary Arts
- Independent studio art
- 3D Work/Sculpture
- Drawing and Painting
- Sketchbooking and Zine-Making
- Set and costume design
- Puppetry
- Mixed media collage
- Playwriting and Poetry writing
Not every offering runs every semester. The program is intentionally shaped around the students’ interests and goals each semester.
An Artistic Day
A typical Arts Day begins with warm-ups—improv and vocal exercises, creative movement, sketch prompts, free writes, and, of course, discussions for focus and planning. These activities build the artistic vision and social trust that gives the rest of the day shape and meaning.
Students then move into focused individual or small-group work: music rehearsal, scene development, choreography, and studio art projects. Collaborative work brings disciplines together across the day. Teaching artists help establish the day’s schedule and rhythms, shifting between leading instruction, coaching, and simply observing supportively. Each Arts Day closes with peer sharing, reflection, goal revision, and production refinement in preparation for the semester’s performance or exhibition.
The structure (and the openness) balances creative freedom with skill-building. Young people take ownership of their projects and are guided and challenged by teaching artists throughout.
Teaching Artists
Melissa Church brings many years of experience directing youth performing arts programs that center the student’s vision and a deep network of professional teaching artists. Some artists work with students consistently throughout the year, building sustained relationships and deepening their work together. Others join for focused residencies, bringing a concentrated burst of new perspective and skill.
Students benefit from both: the continuity of teachers who know them well, and the energy of practitioners who bring fresh expertise into the room.
Communication & Fit
- SHL Arts Day shares the same commitment to knowing each student that runs through everything at School House Lane. Staff observe student engagement carefully, and relationships are built intentionally to build safe spaces and to foster meaningful art!
- Families receive regular updates on program activity, upcoming performances, and individual needs.
- Arts Day is designed for middle school students who enjoy artistic expression, working both independently and in groups, and developing original work. It is a strong fit for students excited to explore ideas, take creative risks, and contribute to a collaborative artistic community.
Tuition & Commitment
- Enrolled per semester, $100/day
- First semester: $1,400 (14 wks)
- Second semester: $2,000 (20 wks)
- Hours: Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
A deposit of $400 is required at enrollment. The balance can be paid in full at the start of the semester or in two equal installments.
Additional performance/materials costs may incur depending on the productions, but efforts will be made to minimize that cost.