• Arts > Visual Banner

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Visual Arts

In the visual arts, students will not only develop hard skills and concepts such as line, shape, pattern, value, form, texture, and color across various media but also learn to perceive the world in new ways through the lens of art. This in turn helps them to pay closer attention to the world around them and detect the ordered everywhere. Through a wide range of approaches and styles, students develop and refine skills, attitudes, and knowledge. Stimuli are provided to the student to develop creatively, aesthetically, and socially. As a student begins their learning in art, emphasis is placed on their creative process. But, as the student grows and develops as an artist, he or she is pushed to refine their techniques to create stunning final products. Courses will explore the two- and three-dimensional and include art appreciation and history experiences through the study of various artists, past and contemporary.

    • Riley Gildea

      Lower School Art

Ms. Riley Gildea is a graduate of Mary Washington University with a B.A. in Studio Art and has refined her skills at several craft schools across the nation including Peter’s Valley School of Craft and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She has been an art teacher for 4 years, teaching art summer camps and as a contract art instructor in the Greater Charlottesville area. This will be her second year at Covenant but her first year teaching Elementary School art. She has taken up Chad Austin’s torch to lead students in following the Christian Liberal Arts and Sciences tradition of having art connected to all subjects and aspects of learning. She is a practicing potter and occasionally sells her work at shows throughout Virginia. Riley loves creatively exploring the beautiful world God created and revealing the masterpiece He made in each of us.

    • Cee-Jay Renner-Thomas

      Hickory Visual Arts

Mr. Cee-Jay Renner-Thomas attended VCUarts to originally study Sculpture & Extended Media but switched to Craft & Material Studies with a focus in woodworking and glassblowing. Over the last few years, he has taken classes at Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. These classes covered glassblowing, woodworking, and painting. Mr. Renner-Thomas's interests are always growing - from drawing and painting to woodworking and glassblowing, skateboarding, and now creating handmade sneakers. His hope and vision for students is that they would understand their role as makers: that God created us to create, to be imaginative, and that He wants us to be in community.

    • Jerry King

      Arts Director

Mr. Jerry King has a BA in Studio Art from Kenyon College, where he arranged for and sang in an A Capella group, designed, acted, and painted for the theatre department, and helped launch the dance program. His Graduate work is in Art History, English as a Second Language (ESL), and Theology. Mr. King worked in full-time ministry, for 25 years, including campus ministry, multi-ethnic urban pastoring, and serving as Senior Pastor for an L-Abri-like congregation.
 
Mr. King has written and staged various scripts, songs, and scores in churches, schools, and communities, and has assisted in local stage design work for Live Arts and Four County Players. 

Before coming to Covenant, Mr. King taught at Mansfield Christian School and Olney Friend School, both in Ohio, and Blue Ridge School in Virginia

    • Karen Proce

      Middle School Art, Photo I & II

Karen Proce has been an art educator for 30 years with a B.S. in Art Education from Bob Jones University. Her three decades in the art studio have provided Karen with a wealth of experience teaching middle school art, high school photography, and 3D art & design among other mediums. Before coming to Covenant, Karen taught at Charlotte Christian and Covenant Day School, the latter of which she was Fine Arts Chair and started a parent volunteer program for the Arts and art direction for multiple stage productions. Karen aspires to practice the presence of Christ in her classroom, encouraging thoughtful consideration and expression of God’s character through artwork and art advocacy.

The Covenant School

Birdwood Campus | Lower School | Pre-K–Grade 5 |
1000 Birdwood Road Charlottesville, VA 22903 | 434.220.7309

Hickory Campus | Middle and Upper School | Grades 6–12 | 175 Hickory Street Charlottesville, VA 22902 | 434.220.7329
Located in Charlottesville, VA, The Covenant School is a non-denominational, private, Christian day school for Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. Students benefit from a challenging academic program, visual and performing arts, competitive athletics, and a wide selection of extracurricular activities.
The Covenant School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, nationality, ethnic origin, or sex in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, tuition assistance programs, athletic and other school-administered programs, nor in the hiring of faculty or staff.
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