Visual arts are taught throughout the academic day by certified art instructor, Adam Shilling. These classes involve a variety of disciplines and media. Individual support and guidance is provided for students who are planning to attend art school and need to prepare an art portfolio.

Art is a very loaded word, not only because of its applied and expressive qualities, but through art's strong existence throughout history and the world today. Art tells us a story of the past, present, and the future. And, art is the yoke to a powerful, healthy, and enriched society. By definition a yoke is something that couples or binds two or more things together. At Summit Prep I envision art as the binder to a well rounded education and overall therapeutic experience. Furthermore, this yoke does not only pull together our Summit community but it uses a universal language that connects humanity across the globe. Students at Summit Prep get a diverse and complex art education.

Art helps students think critically, analyze everything put before them, and allows them to operate on higher levels of thinking. The problem solving skills of a student who receives training in the arts are two-fold. They first allow a person to analyze an object or subject matter beyond the surface. And second, art allows the student to continually delve into cooperative learning experiences, where the student becomes teacher, as they explain art and their findings to the class through an evaluative critique. Ultimately, art is another tool to advance a student's ability to communicate. These newly acquired communication skills serve our classroom setting well, but more importantly they help a student to open up more to the entire Summit community. In turn, with access to these skills, art assists in boosting our students overall self-confidence and self-awareness.

The essence of being grounded in the arts is that they offer an individual the complete package. In the past, art education has helped civilizations to break through to the next stage of new growth. In the present, here at Summit, art gives students an added edge to their learning and a positive coping mechanism to deal with the joys and hardships of life. The future holds endless possibilities for students to use the fine arts as a tool for understanding themselves and those around them so they can achieve their personal best.

At Summit Prep we are able to offer a broad range of fine arts courses. Those courses include Intro to Studio Art, Drawing I &II, Painting I&II, Sculpture, Ceramics, Photography, and Advanced Art Portfolio. Individual classes last the full block (semester) during the academic day and our worth 0.5 credit towards a high school diploma.

Our fine art program has evolved into a nice addition to our students overall education at Summit Prep and can also be a positive light to unconventional students who do not excel in other academic areas. My grading is not based on a student's talent or ability when they start my classes but it is based on their present ability and the progress they are willing to make through the course of a block. I hold their overall effort and participation very highly. I am usually more concerned with how they process art over the product. If they put in hard work, attention, participation in discussion, and care as we learn about the arts - the product can become a reward. I also hold national and state standards for the fine arts at the highest level. With those standards as my guide, I am confident that I can give our students a great learning opportunity in the fine arts.

I am a working artist myself and have connections with several resources in the Flathead Valley and abroad to share with the students. Those resources include field trips to local art galleries and exhibits, visiting local artist's studios, and having artists visit the school to share their portfolios with the students. We also plan an annual field trip to the Missoula Art Museum and to our local Hockaday Museum of Art. As a University of Montana Alumni, we also visit the college campus to see a couple of their student galleries and walk through the Ceramics and Sculpture Department where I spent a lot of my time in college. The students have always really enjoyed our annual trip to Missoula to see the museum and college campus.

Musical arts are taught by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Tim Torgerson. Tim is a professional musician. He has been playing guitar for several years. He has written many songs and performs professionally throughout the Flathead Valley. Tim is Summit's Artist in Residence. Many of the student's at Summit Prep have had the opportunity to work with Tim either in group or private guitar lessons. Students often perform before an audience at talent shows and graduations. They also compose music on our 16-track digital keyboard/recorder. Arrangements are made for students interested in taking private voice or piano lessons.Tim brings more than just music to our campus. His gentle spirit and his willingness to listen has helped many students rekindle their passion for creativity and engagement.

Music is an important element in the glue that holds us together - individually and collectively. Without music much of what is held in our memory banks would just be cold, dry data in a sterile environment. Music and the arts work together to allow us to hold life closer to the heart. And without being connected at the heart we risk missing out on life. I have found that some students need a structured step by step approach while others need to step onto a fast track to rockin' the house. I love to see a student gain some momentum, go from one level to another and get excited about playing guitar. I have students who come to me after having played for years and even play sophisticated music but want to learn more about the theory behind what they're already doing and increase their musical vocabulary. At the same time many of my students are touching a guitar for the first time in our first lesson together ...Whatever the situation - it truly is ALL GOOD. In a practical day to day sense, the average person isn't going to play music on a professional basis ...but to relax with a fine instrument IS A BEAUTIFUL THING, even if all you can do is strum a few cords and enjoy the resonance. It can be the transition point between a rough day and a great evening.