After working tirelessly to arrive at that final stroke of their paintbrush, the applying of that last filter to their photo, the gluing of just one more cardboard scrap to complete their project and the playing of their film’s credits, Germantown Academy’s Upper School visual art students are ready to showcase their pieces.
“You’re going to see a wide range of work,” Mr. David Love, Head of the Upper School Visual Arts Department, said. “Some of it’s humorous, maybe even emotional. Some of it’s skillful, some of it’s mechanical and exact and precise and some of it captures the essence of something in a spontaneous kind of way.”
Beginning on Dec. 2, and running through Feb. 7, 2026, GA’s Arts Center is showcasing works produced by students in 2D art, photography, 3D art and digital media courses.
“It’s always so beautiful seeing how different aspects of the community are coming together,” Michaila Matthews ‘26 said. “Especially in the arts department, it’s like, you get digital, you get photo… It’s all so amazing.”
While pieces by students across grade levels are featured in the show, the spotlight is on honors art students.
“I’m always excited to see the honors exhibits,” Mr. Love said. “Because there you get a chance to see students’ work spanning over sometimes three and four years, and how it’s evolved and how it’s developed.”
Most artworks presented in the show evolved from structured, assigned projects throughout the years. However, everyone’s creative process may look a little different. Many honors art students carefully plan their creations before they begin their final piece.
“I usually use my sketchbook first for coming up with my views and ideas,” Matthews said. “Making multiple different drafts, and then transferring over to bigger paper or figuring out what kind of medium I want to use.”
One such assignment that Mr. Love proposes each year to his 2D art students challenges them to create collages out of cut pieces of paper. Some of these abstract artworks may be on display in the show.
“The first thing we did was a little bit of collage,” Elsa Simonetti ‘26 said. “Every single year, just to get our minds thinking.”
There are often guidelines that students must fullfill while working on their pieces in-class. However, there is still much room for students to add their own creativity and flair to these artwork.
One such instance was during a mandala-inspired project that Matthews has been working on, which is themed around flowers and their stages of life. The artwork is currently being showcased in the exhibit.
“I’ve been trying to branch out a little bit,” Matthews said. “Make it less like a mandala typically would be, and do something I know and love.”
Since GA teachers often encourage students to take their own direction with their pieces, every work displayed in the show will be unique and personal to each artist.
“We really like the honors students to start to develop their own aesthetic and their own sense of quality work,” Mr. Love said. “So we pretty much let the honors students select their work for the show.”
While it may be difficult to choose which artworks to present, student-artists had to pick from the variety of projects that they have completed over the years to exhibit.
“A lot of [artwork] that I’m thinking about bringing in, I did last year. I worked with a lot of abstract and bright, pop-y colors,” Simonetti said.
This show not only allows students to display their original pieces, but also gives others in the GA community an opportunity to get a peek into what students have been working on for so long behind the art rooms’ closed doors.
“I hope that people are able to put more value into art, especially at GA, because I feel like so much value is being put into just athletics and academics,” Simonetti said. “I think people need to show up, look at everyone else’s art and realize that this is such an important part of our community too.”
With so much hard work on display, it could be very meaningful to these student-artists if members of the GA community would take a moment to stop by the Arts Center, take a breath, slow down and open their minds to absorb and appreciate the exhibit this winter.