ARTSDavid R. GammonsC O N C O R D A C A D E M Y M A G A Z I N E S P R I N G 2 0 1 036CA’s winter mainstage production was Bat Boy. The offbeat musical, about a half-bat, half-boy discovered in a cave in West Virginia andthe townspeople who struggle to confront what they cannot understand, allowed CA’s singer-actors to showcase a wide range of musicalstyles, including rock ’n’ roll, gospel, hip-hop, ballads, and traditional show tunes.
Concord Academy’s Dance Company performed Triptych in March,a collaboration with Eton College in England. The original work,a dance and music event in three movements, was choreographedand directed by dance teacher Richard Colton and featured sevenCA dancers. CA’s Dance Company performed Triptych at Eton overspring vacation.David R. GammonsCultural ImmersionIn February, the giant fieldtrip known as Gund MuseumDay allowed every ConcordAcademy student to visit oneof several museums and toexperience firsthand Boston’svast cultural community.They visited the Museumof Fine Arts, the Isabella StewartGardner Museum, theMIT Museum, the Museumof Science, the Institute ofContemporary Art, the DeCordovaMuseum and SculptureGarden, the Peabody EssexMuseum, Harvard’s SacklerMuseum, and the WorcesterArt Museum.In several places, studentstook “insider” tours, includingone at the Museum of FineArts (MFA) led by CA trusteeAnn Gund P’08, who is also atrustee of the MFA. The day isnamed for Gund and her husbandGraham, in gratitude fortheir support of the arts andtheir generosity to ConcordAcademy.Gund shared some of herfavorite stories from the MFAcollection: the twelfth-centurySpanish fresco, Christ inMajesty with Symbols of theFour Evangelists, whicharrived at the MFA packedwith a layer of Parmesancheese for protection; thedismal social lives of thedaughters of Edward DarleyBoit, shown in the renownedJohn Singer Sargent portrait.In a music room, Gundinsisted students look at theback of an ornate banjo,revealing an intricate designthat most museum-goersmiss. She told of the MFA’ssurprise to learn that a filthy,broken statue in storage since1950 turned out to be a pricelessSt. John the Baptist byGiovanni Francesco Rustici.Gund also gave thegroup a glimpse of the MFA’snew Art of the Americas wing,opening in November. “Itmade sense to us that Bostonshould be the center of Americanart in the United States,”she said. In a small room,behind the scenes, sheshowed a model of the newwing, its tiny galleries pastedwith replicas of the art thatwill hang there.Gund Museum Day andits counterpart, Gund StudioDay, happen every other yearand are intended to encouragestudents’ art appreciation andhelp them embrace the wealthof local cultural offerings.Commendable ClayAceramic work by MandyBoucher ’11 wasaccepted into the annual showsponsored by the NationalCouncil on the Education forCeramic Art. More than 1,150artists applied for the K–12show, seven hundred of themin grades eleven and twelve.Only 162 pieces wereselected, including Mandy’spiece (right), which she createdfor her Ceramics 1 class.In other ceramics news,students once again this yeardonated their handiwork for acharity sale, raising more than$500 for Partners In Health’swork in Haiti. About seventybowls and vases were soldduring intermission at thewinter mainstage productionof Bat Boy in February.Lisa Kong ’10Gail FriedmanCA trustee Ann Gund P’08 leading students on an insider’s tour ofBoston’s Museum of Fine Arts37C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G S P R I N G 2 0 1 0
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