Art Courses in Tampa

Visual Arts at Tampa Prep offers coursework in ceramics, printmaking, drawing and painting, crafts, sculpture, and design thinking.

• Wheel throwing, glazing, and firing. 
• Relief printmaking and intaglio engraving.
• Drawing and painting contours, linear perspective, figure study and landscapes.
• Fibers, metals, wood, glass and leather crafts.
• Clay, metal, stone, wood, paper and found object sculpture.
• Autodesk Inventor, CAD, Shapr 3D.

Student work is exhibited throughout the year in the hallways of the Smith Arts Wing and in the display galleries on all three floors of the main building.

Through our acting, musical theater and technical and theater production courses students study acting, script writing, character building, monologue work, stage combat, choreography and improvisation. For the two Upper School productions and one Middle School production each year, tech theater and theater production students provide the lights, costumes, props and sounds to bring the stage to life.

Due to our proximity of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts–literally just a stone’s throw from our campus–Tampa Prep theater students regularly benefit from in-class guest speakers and lunchtime Master Class workshops with theater professionals. Recent visitors include:

• Fred Johnson, an artist in residence at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts with an extensive background and knowledge in Jazz Vocalization and history, visited our musical theater and chorus students for a lunchtime Master Class during Jazz Appreciation Month.
• Cirque du Soleil performer Darius Harper–from their Volta tour–came to school for a lunchtime Master Class during which students from our Musical Theater and Chorus classes performed audition pieces for him, on which he provided valuable feedback. Mr. Harper, a vocalist, previously toured with several broadway shows including The Book of Mormon, After Midnight and Kinky Boots.
• Matt Morgan, visiting assistant professor of Musical Theater Voice at the University of Florida, has conducted a workshop for students in Musical Theater Voice. Matt has debuted at three of the four theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center, Matt Morgan has established himself as a tenor to watch.

Our performing vocal ensemble begins in Middle School with the basics:  ear training, proper breathing, diction, tone color, a sense of ensemble blend, musicality, dynamics, line, etc. Our Upper School Concert Chorus participate in a performing tour outside of Florida each year. Upper School Chamber Chorus is by audition only. This chorus enters District and State Choral festivals and also participates in a performing tour outside of Florida each year.   

• Alexa Lowrey ‘19 and Caleb Quezon ‘18 were featured vocalists with the North Port Symphony in the early Spring of 2018 at the North Port Performing Arts Center. They sang a variety of musical theater pieces including “All I ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera.

• Middle School students have performed at various holiday events in the community including Busch Gardens, Zoo Tampa, and Curtis Hixon Park.
• Our Upper School Chorus students audition every year to perform in Disney Candlelight Processional at Epcot. For this event, students perform with the Voices of Liberty, a 50-piece orchestra, and celebrity narrators. Narrators students have performed with in the past include: Whoopi Goldberg, Alfonso Ribeiro and Neil Patrick Harris.
• In 2018, Upper School chorus students traveled to Nashville, Tennessee. They performed in front of the Grand Ole’ Opry and did a recording session in Studio B which included singing our alma mater.

Beginning Band | Advanced Band | String Orchestra | Piano Lab | Guitar Lab | Music Studio Ensemble | AP Music Theory

In addition to concerts and performances on campus throughout the year, students of ours who are members of the Tampa Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (TMYO) frequently partner with the Florida Orchestra to provide music for the community in our Smith Black Box Theater. 

In Music Studio Ensemble, students learn to create their own digital compositions and mixing projects using Garage Band and Logic Pro applications. The marriage of acoustic instruments alongside electronic technologies turns out some stellar creations such as this song written, created and performed by three seniors as part of their 3# project.  

Read this blog by Music Teacher Jessica Calandra about the importance of mastering an art.

Journalism students produce the School’s student newspaper, The Current. They learn writing styles, interview techniques, layout and design and production mechanics. Yearbook students produce… you guess it… the yearbook, writing all copy, designing every page and taking the photographs. Many yearbook students also take our Digital Photography class. Broadcast Journalism is a video production course that puts responsibility on the students to create a newsroom hierarchy and create video segments that highlight school activities. Students can also create websites in our Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 course, or design their own app in App Development using the Unity Development environment and how to code 2D and 3D virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences.