VISUAL ARTS
Creative expression is an integral part of a Holden students’ education. We offer students the opportunities, tools, direction and encouragement to express and enhance their creativity and talent. Self exploration, self expression, cooperation and collaboration with others are encouraged in all of the art classes. We believe that participation in the arts can provide a method of healing, stimulate students creatively and enhance their critical thinking, as well as help students to re-discover their interest in learning. The arts are incorporated with academic classes and students can also choose from a variety of elective art classes such as painting, drawing, black and white and digital photography, sculpture and collage.

DRAMA
Holden High School’s Drama program changes students’ lives. We present non-traditional and challenging material, giving students the experience and opportunity to complete a project that takes skill, collaboration and dedication. Most of our drama students have never been involved in theatre before attending Holden, but nearly half of the student body participates in our drama program.

A few of the productions that Holden students have staged: Blues by Jerome McDonough (about homeless teens); Antigone by Bertolt Brecht (the classic story retold from an anarchist perspective); and New World Order by Harold Pinter (about the abuse of power inequities). In addition, Daniel Dickinson, our Drama director, has developed a number of original plays, including People Who Leave (about suicide and grief, co-created with the students) and Winnie and his Pig (an adaptation of Winnie the Pooh addressing teen culture).

Holden’s Drama Director, Daniel Dickinson, has performed, directed and written productions that have been staged in Bay area theatre scene since 1976.

MUSIC
We craft our music program to fit the needs of the student body. If a student has had ten years experience on the piano and need a class that supports him/her in developing that skill further, we will create something that fulfills that need; if a student has never picked up an instrument in their entire life, but wants to start now, we’ll have something for them as well.

Music is everywhere at Holden. In addition to the music classes we offer, there is a ton of music that happens spontaneously: pick-up jams with students and staff alike; kids making, then slapping beats in the art room; student-run free-style clubs; these are all very normal and encouraged activities here at Holden.

We offer small, semi-private band classes where students play/learn guitar, piano, accordion, and drums, all while learning songs and building repertoire. There are jam sessions at lunch and after school where students can, in their own way, hone their skills and apply what they have learned in classes. Our music program builds self-esteem in a fun, carefree, experimental, and creative way.