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With our all-school musical, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opening on April 24, this is the perfect time to feature The Gregory School’s fine arts program. Why? Because the all-school musical brings together students from all disciplines and all philosophical principles of our fine arts curriculum. 

Why The Gregory School for Fine Arts?
April 17, 2025

With our all-school musical, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opening on April 24, this is the perfect time to feature The Gregory School’s fine arts program. Why? Because the all-school musical brings together students from all disciplines and all philosophical principles of our fine arts curriculum. 

The show’s directors choose a play with a large cast, and anyone who auditions will get a part. This means that inexperienced students can participate, and more experienced students can be challenged with more demanding roles. 

Stagecraft students obviously work on the show, from lights and sound to props and sets, and this extends to Digital Arts students who create backgrounds, animation, and marketing materials. Advanced student musicians join professionals in the orchestra pit, student choreographers create and teach dances, and student singers and dancers can shine. Photography students take cast headshots, and painting, drawing, and textiles students work on sets and costumes. Additionally, students who are not taking a fine arts class at all can still participate through Friday Exploration Stagecraft classes and after school rehearsals.

What are the principles and opportunities that put all of these components in place?

Participation in the arts is part of our curriculum for all students.

Middle school students take at least one fine arts class each year from fifth through eighth grade. Upper School students must have one full year of fine arts to graduate. Upper School students who do not have space in their schedules for a fine arts class each semester are still able to participate in the arts beyond their one year through such opportunities as school plays, which rehearse after school, as well as an ever-growing array of visual and performing art Friday Explorations. Students also take advantage of zero-hour arts classes to maximize their electives.

We engage students who have no prior experience.

Participation in the fine arts is encouraged both through a broad curriculum and through bountiful opportunities for beginning students. For example, all students can join our band, orchestra, or choir with no music experience and no audition. They are taught to read music, play an instrument and work as an ensemble. All Upper School visual and performing arts subject areas offer introductory courses. Middle School visual arts classes follow a progression that teaches both technique and history, and Drama students in grades 5-7 are introduced to theater production and stagecraft as part of their performances. (Eighth graders may take a dedicated theater production class which works on a variety of shows.)

We support and challenge advanced students with passion in the arts.

While we teach students to play instruments, learn to perform on stage, sing, dance, photograph, or draw, we also nurture the development of highly advanced students as they pursue their talents. With everything from Advanced Studio Art Practice to Advanced Band or Strings Orchestra and from Photography and Digital Design 5, to Advanced Choreography Lab and Advanced Drama, talented, experienced, and passionate students are supported in their growth as serious artists. 

TGS fine arts students travel, perform, and compete with great success.

Here are just a few examples:

  • For the past several years, our Band and Orchestra students have attended the Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim. In 2025 they were awarded first place and gold ratings in addition to top awards for individual TGS performers. Next year, they will be going to Chicago.  We also consistently have multiple students selected for Regional and All-State Band, Choir and Orchestra each year.
  • Choir students have traveled to New York City to perform in Carnegie Hall, and in the summer of 2026 they will travel to Vienna and Salzburg to sing with other choirs and perform solo concerts. Choir students also perform in the Jazz and Madrigal Festival in Flagstaff.
  • Upper School drama students find success in a variety of local, regional and national competitions including the National Shakespeare Competition, the National High School Musical Theater Awards, and the Arizona Thespian Festival. Students of all grade levels are encouraged to enter the Live Theatre Workshop Young Playwrights competition. Several TGS students have had their plays selected and performed through this program.
  • TGS visual arts students consistently win top awards in the Pima County Library High School Arts Invitational, the Arizona Highways Student Photo Competition, and more.
  • Since 2023, The Gregory School has been designated a Seal of Arts Proficiency School, and several students now graduate with this distinction each year.
Our fine arts program builds community on our campus and beyond.
  • With the all-school musical, students in grades 5-12 and from all areas of the arts work together to create the production.
  • Visual arts students paint murals or create other art projects around campus as part of explorations, independent studies, interim activities, and Friday Explorations.
  • Our arts program reaches into the larger community not only through our performances on and off campus, but by involving community members in our activities. Examples include: To enable our students to experience performing a large-scale piece such as Fauré’s Requiem, our choir teacher worked with other local choirs, schools, and TGS faculty, staff, and alumni to create a community choir big enough to perform in the work. Our Upper School National Arts Honor Society students and our drama students partner with Tucson Medical Center for Seniors to paint portraits of senior citizens or to perform their life stories on stage.
We teach the academic side of art.

Middle School art classes explore famous artists, techniques and eras, and Upper School students may take AP Music Theory & Composition, Introduction to Film: History and Technique
History of Animation, and more.



Our fine arts facilities provide bountiful opportunities.

Facilities include:

  • 370-seat theater, complete with an orchestra pit and state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment.
  • Mirrored dance studio with sprung floor
  • Photography studio with full darkroom facilities
  • Multimedia digital studies with state-of-the-art Apple iMacs
  • Adobe Suite for all students, faculty, and staff
  • Ceramics kiln
  • Newly remodeled 3-tier band and orchestra room, with practice rooms
  • Drums for indoor drumline groups.
  • Pianos and keyboards for group piano classes
  • Large, well-stocked visual arts classrooms on the Middle and Upper School campuses.