Aesthetic Programs

MHA aesthetic programs are designed to teach students what is truly beautiful and worthy of praise, and to give them the tools to create and present things of beauty and praiseworthiness. In the classrooms, students are regularly exposed to the study of quality literature and a heavy emphasis is placed on dramatic presentation of memorized Bible passages, poetry, or other texts. Language programs including the study of Latin and Greek help students explore and discover the treasures of original great works in literature. Art and music are academic subjects enjoyed by all grades. MHA aesthetic programs offer further development opportunities, beyond what is offered in the classroom.

Skill development and performance opportunities are also offered through participation in:

• Grandparents’ Day
• Christmas program
• Madrigal Dinners
• Laurel Wreath event
• Fine Arts Night
• Protocol Night
• Graduation

Philosophy
Perhaps nowhere is the absence of genuinely Christian thinking more evident than in the realm of aesthetics. Ethics and epistemology (the science of knowledge) have received ample evangelical attention, but not aesthetics. We are the worse for it. We believe that the infallible rule of Scripture and the historic witness of the Church call Christians to make judgments of “good-better-best” and “bad-worse-worst” in every area of life. Paul’s aesthetic manifesto is quickly summarized in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.” God has called us to embrace a life of moral and aesthetic virtue, preferring cultural icons and artifacts that have enduring, classical power and grace.

Vision Statement
As a classical and Christian school, we seek to cultivate in our children a love for not only truth and goodness, but beauty.  Aesthetics has to do with the perception of beauty in all its forms.    

As with truth and goodness, objective standards for beauty are rooted in the very nature of the triune God; they are also expressed in His Word and in His works.  We ourselves are one of His works – in fact, the highest (“just a little lower than the angels”).  Having been made in God’s image, we are “sub-creators,” made to make things, to make them like He did, and to make them to His glory.  We are, in this sense, all artists privileged to serve under the Master Artist.  And so at Mars Hill Academy our goal is to understand, appreciate, and pursue the aesthetic dimension in all of life.

We do recognize that the Fall affected not only man’s knowledge and will, but his aesthetic sensibilities. Thus we guard against the aesthetics of unbelief, with its promotion of shallowness, ugliness, fragmentation, and purposelessness; and we reject its embrace of relativism, whereby beauty and “good art” are conceived of as purely subjective.  We also guard against being drawn to beautiful things or producing beautiful things only to serve them rather than the Creator.  Merely outward beauty cannot be a substitute for genuine beauty, “the beauty of holiness.”

Given the continuing reality of the Fall, it is appropriate that our more message-oriented art acknowledge the reality of sin and its consequences, rather than fabricating a sanitized world.  But given the reality of redemption, it is important that all of our artistry reflect the lordship of Christ in every area of life.  Though living in a fallen world, we seek to beautify our surroundings and elevate or ennoble whatever we put our hands (or voices) to, testifying to the restorative work of Christ in and through us.

So what are the standards that underlie our aesthetics?  They include a balance of complexity and simplicity; harmony of form and content, or of form and function; creativity; use of subtlety, symbol, or metaphor; ability to stir sentiment without resorting to sentimentality; fittingness of the medium and the message; ability to adorn or enhance the surroundings; connectivity with other works or styles that have stood the test of time; and conformity to biblical standards of truth and goodness.

These should especially characterize our work in the Fine Arts (that is, art that has an intense, purposeful aesthetic focus).  Whether in painting, sculpture, poetry, drama, or music, students should be learning the essential elements and skills of that particular craft, practicing them, and striving to create a refined, well-crafted work.  More comprehensively, we seek to bring beauty to bear on all facets of our lives together.      Thus our manners, our school dress, the décor of our classrooms, the music and manner of speech at special events – we want all of these to adorn the truth and goodness of all that we say and do.

While acknowledging that, as finite creatures, our vision of the beautiful is necessarily flawed and incomplete, we nonetheless commit ourselves to dwelling on those things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy; and we entrust ourselves and our work to the One whose knowledge of the beautiful (like His knowledge of the true and the good) is exhaustive and perfect.
Read the Extended Aesthetics Vision Statement (pdf)