The school is co-located with the Lyceum Gallery where students are immersed in the daily life of an operating gallery. They meet the incoming artists, watch us promote the shows, attend the openings and live among the artwork. This gives them the chance to understand art as a practice and purpose in life.

Our neighbourhood has a history of artists working out of the margins, in the disused warehouses and dilapidated shops to create, critique and connect to what they saw going on around them. They were optimistic, found community and in many ways spurred on change in the area. The Lyceum is laid on the foundations of this spirit of innovation and artistic enterprise.

A Survey of The Arts Curriculum

Novel Study and Drama Novels are used as seeds for interdisciplinary study of literature, history, botany, science, visual art, drama and philosophy. Short and long essay assignments, creative writing, in-class presentations and word study are a part of each comprehensive survey assignment. This year, our younger students completed a full-length dramatic presentation of Inherit the Wind and our older students completed 1000 word essays on 1984.

Short Story The short story is a form that ideally captures a snapshot of time and place. This year, we surveyed an array of diverse work (such as Hemingway, Salinger, Kinkaid, Achebe and Atwood) in order to map plot structure and learn about different narrative voices, sources of conflict and character development.

Poetry and Poetics This year, we surveyed an array of poetic forms and reviewed poetry as an agent for change through various eras: modernism, postmodernism, Black American poetry timeline 1850 – present, dub poetry and the Brixton diaspora and feminist poets 1960-1980.

Critical Reflection and Writing The children are given writing prompts from which they craft stories, write poetry, develop logical arguments, prepare debates and present research topics.

Storybook Publication: Life in a Ghanian Village In collaboration with our sister school, Kpedze Todze in Ghana, students have completed a children’s storybook which will be published in the fall of 2024. The ICan Club students in Ghana wrote the story under the direction of Sylvia Morrison, founder of Links Across Borders. They sent the manuscript for the Lyceum students to complete the art direction and illustration under the guidance of Holly Venable and Sam Higgs.

Radio Nowhere Our student-run radio station broadcasts each Friday at 10am. Our students write and broadcast all original material. Each student is responsible for the content for their beat. Check out the Radio Nowhere tab for more information.

Music Theory and Composition Under the direction of Victor Xu, each student completed an original scored musical piece to accompany an animation. Each week, they study ear training, theory and composition with Victor.

Photography. Documentary Photographer and Urban Activist Martin Reis led the students in an eight week study of analogue photography. Students made their own pinhole cameras, learned about the darkroom process, tried their hand at Polaroid emulsion lifts and shot with manual cameras in the local neighbourhood then curated their shots for exhibition in The Lyceum Gallery in June of 2024.

Culinary Arts The Lyceum’s in-house chef, Sam Higgs, provides students with an opportunity to see food as a valuable resource, a seat of conscious choice and an art form. Twice per week, a different student is scheduled to assist in the preparation of the day’s meal, spending time picking up life witticisms and wisdom as well as kitchen chops from Sam. In the fall, students prepare an elaborate multi-course formal meal for all their parents in the gallery following the theme of The Beast Feast.

Visual Art Studio

The Lyceum is so fortunate to have a dedicated group of mentors who guide them in photography, drawing, painting, textile art, collage and assemblage. You can read more about all of these amazing mentors in the collaborators section or follow the work we do on instagram @theorchardlyceum

With a fully equipped studio at their disposal, students can decide how they want to work. We build in time for exploration, contemplation and individual study as well as collaboration on group projects and occasionally, we just break for a studio day to work independently.

The West End Phoenix Our students have had the benefit of working with mentors from the West End Phoenix for several years. Journalist Kerry Manders, who writes for The Phoenix and The New York Times helped them prepare a full page of content on The Lyceum. Last spring, they had interned with Photo Editor Jalani Morgan. The triptychs they completed of community leaders became the HOPE Portraits which opened the gallery’s second season in September. You can read the story and see the works on The Lyceum Gallery’s viewing rooms.