The Upper School Fine Arts Board (FAB) hosted its very first FAB Fest during retreat week on Jan. 17. In a single day, performers and artists from theater, choir, dance, studio art, film and much more came together to showcase their unique talents and engage Upper School students in fine arts across campus.
Fine Arts Board chair Ava Shipp explained that the idea took form in the summer of 2023 and gained traction after being pitched to Head of School Lisa Culbertson. It earned unanimous support from the fine arts teachers.
“I really wanted FAB Fest to increase exposure and interest in the arts within our student body and to show students that there are so many different types of art,” Shipp said.
Fine Arts Board members worked with Student Council on logistical planning, including mock schedules and budgets, with the help of board sponsors Christie Sullivan and Alex Farrior.
“Our sponsors gave us a lot of creative freedom so we could really kick off the program with as much fine arts representation as possible,” Shipp said.
Sophomore Nadia Guevara, who performed in the dance program’s Alice in Wonderland, said being able to share her passion with Upper School students led her to appreciate Hockaday’s fine arts program more than ever.
“You get to build a community with people that you may never have gotten to engage with,” Guevara said. “We even got to collaborate with History of Arts and Music teacher, Ms. Griffiths, who gave us some awesome music to accompany our choreography.”
As part of the festival, the entire Upper School student body participated in visual and performing arts workshops to get an appreciation for the diverse fine arts offerings at Hockaday.
“We understood that students don’t always have the opportunity to immerse themselves in all that Hockaday arts has to offer and that a full day to experience the variety of fine arts on campus is super impactful,” Shipp said.
The program serves as a potential long-term enhancement to existing FAB programs like “coffeehouses” and “lunchboxes,” where students have opportunities to demonstrate their talents in less structured environments.
“Our main goal was to increase visibility of the wonderful work being done in Hockaday’s arts departments because there’s so much creativity happening around us, and my goal was to showcase it at the festival,” Shipp said.
FAB members received strong feedback to continue their efforts via post-program surveys and hope to make it even better going forward.
“Since this was sort of the pilot year for FAB Fest,” Shipp said, “We envision including different performances, workshops, other divisions of Hockaday and even teaming up with other schools like St. Mark’s to expand it and take it to the next level.”
