Arts & Humanities adds digital focus to its palette of coursework

The Lincoln Public Schools Arts and Humanities Focus Program has added a series of courses that focus on the digital components of art.

The new courses are a response to the evolving way that artists work, said teacher Maggie Elsener, who taught art at Lincoln Northeast High School before moving to Arts and Humanities this year. She taught digital art courses at Northeast but prior to this year, Arts and Humanities lacked the necessary technology for those courses so it focused on more traditional methods.

“It really was a missing component. There are so many contemporary artists that have explored adding a digital element to their work to add to both the narrative of their work, as well as the audience’s experience of their work,” Elsener said.

Students in her digital art courses can choose an area of concentration for the projects they work on throughout the semester: digital painting and illustration; animation and time-based media; graphic design; photography and photo manipulation; and alternative processes. Once they do that, Elsener gives them individual lessons on those areas throughout the semester, as well as guidance about what digital mediums would fit best with their projects.

“My role is to help guide them through their ideas, present tools they will use to accomplish those ideas and encourage them to engage in conversations with each other and with me that push their work along and then reflect on their successes and failures along the way,” she said.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Elsener led her students through a lesson on digital photography and simple studio lighting techniques. Some of the students had chosen photography and photo manipulation as their concentration this semester, but it was valuable information for all of them.

“I feel that pushing yourself to pay attention to composition and lighting can inform your work across the board, so knowing about the type of lighting photographers use can lead students to thinking about what kind of shading they might add in a digital painting or drawing,” Elsener said.

The Arts and Humanities Focus Program began in 1998 and is open to students in grades nine through 12. The program is a highly interactive learning environment centered around the arts and humanities. Students who attend the focus program remain students at their home high school and are eligible to participate in the school’s activities, athletics and social events, as well as those of the focus program. Students take at least two classes at their home high school prior to the start of the Arts and Humanities program each day.

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