05/23/25 Fine Arts Department News
"creativity takes courage" -henri matisse
Upcoming Events
THANK YOU!
Thank you for a wonderful year of Fine Arts at HPISD! From concerts to competitions, art class to after school rehearsals, we have had so much fun learning, growing, and creating with your kiddos. Thank you to our campus administrators, HP Arts, and all of the parents, faculty, and staff who have supported our young artists on their journeys. We can't wait to see what the 2025-2026 school year brings to Fine Arts at HPISD! Have a great summer, and go Scots!
Highland Park High School
MAPS Environmental Architecture: Dallas CASA Playhouse
Environmental Architecture students are making great progress on their playhouse for Dallas CASA! The winning design was selected earlier this year and is designed by Environmental Architecture students, and will be raffled off at NorthPark Mall to benefit Dallas CASA. The design is based on the local Cox Streamline Moderne house, pictured in the bottom right! HPHS is the only high school or student group that participates in the annual Parade of Playhouses to benefit Dallas CASA, and we are so proud of our Environmental Architecture students for doing this work to benefit the community!
Highlander Band: 25/26 Student Leadership
The Highlander Band is thrilled to announce its Band Leadership Team for the 2025-26 school year!
Drum Majors: Kaden Rice (head Drum Major), Mitch Dauphinais, lan Hyde
Head Woodwind Captain: Lila Biffle
Woodwind Captain: Charlie Crain
Head Brass Captain: Carson Critcher
Brass Captains: Romi Segal, Nathan Cooke, Nicholas Garretson
Section Leaders: Emily Luu, Olivia Allan, Ryaan Khan, Jason Peng, Morgan Owen, James Slade, Jake Neilson, Harrison Barden
President: Erin Muse
Vice President: Sam Stobaugh
Field Crew Captain: Nathaniel North
Librarians: Regina Lebron and Evelyn Goetz
Quartermaster: John Bishop
Battery Captain: Avery Woodson
Front Ensemble Captain: Izzy Arnold
Bass Drum Section Leader: Vishal Manhas
Quad Section Leaders: Ethan Stanwood
Percussion Logistics: Marcus Rosalez
Color Guard Captains: Roslyn Xie and Ella Shohet
Congratulations to these terrific leaders!
HPHS Speech and Debate
Congrats to our Speech and Debate teams and students for a wonderful season and school year, including a state championship win! We can't wait to see what the team accomplishes next year with Mr. Whisenhunt. Go Scots!
Highland Park Middle School/McCulloch Intermediate School
Raider Band: "Sing Me a Story" at Spring Concert
Check out this wonderful article by Isabella Castillo featured in Park Cities People about our own Raider Band partnering with nonprofit Sing Me a Story and composer Ryan Fillinger to transform local student William Woleben's story into music! The Raider Band performed this and other selections at their spring concert last Thursday.
HPMS Art: Ceramics
HPMS Ceramics is finishing off the year strong with wheel throwing, handmade terra cotta planters, and tic tac toe board games and pieces!
HPMS Drama: End of Year Wrap Up!
Raider Drama (MIS and HPMS) celebrated a fantastic '24-'25 season with our first Drama Banquet. "A Night in Hollywood" was complete with dinner, end of season awards (The Thespys) and the ceremony of chartering our Thespian Troupe #12312—a first in HPMS history! With over 83 eligible Junior Thespians inducted, we are the one of the largest Junior Thespian troupes in our area. Junior Thespians is a branch of the Educational Theatre Association, and International Thespian Honor Society. Way to go Thespians!
The 7th and 8th Grade Theatre classes also performed in their end of the year performances (8th Grade: Totally Red, and 7th Grade: Murder at the Malt Shop). Congrats to all on a great season!
Additionally, the HPMS Tech Theatre Class participated this semester in the innaugural UIL Theatrical Design Contest. Please congratulate the following students:
Shaw Hoffmann, 7th Grade-1st Place in Theatrical Marketing Design
Paul Bennett, 7th Grade-2nd Place in Theatrical Marketing Design
Eli Hilburn, 8th Grade, 4th Place in Theatrical Marketing Design
Madelyn Brown, 7th Grade-1st Place in Theatrical Costume Design
Maddox Mannetti, 7th Grade, 2nd Place in Theatrical Costume Design
Will Porter, 8th Grade, 1st Place in Theatrical Scenic Design
Benjamin Abernathy, 8th Grade, 2nd Place in Theatrical Scenic Design
Leighton Priddy, 7th Grade, 3rd Place in Theatrical Scenic Design
Brooks Tait, 7th Grade, 4th Place in Theatrical Scenic Design
Aleksa Zivaljevic, 8th Grade, 1st Place in Theatrical Hair and Make-Up Design
Elementary Campuses
Armstrong Elementary Music: 4th Grade
Armstrong Elementary Fourth Graders performed their Recognition Program for the school and their parents to end the school year. They sang, played rhythm instruments and recorders, and presented hand-written thank you notes to their teachers. The program ended with the traditional "Bye, Bye, Armstrong" song.
Boone Elementary: Music
Boone Music had a great year! See photos below from some of our programs featuring pirates, Halloween characters, and more!
Hyer Elementary: Art
Hyer huskies are packing up all of their beautiful art into their uniquely designed portfolios! Someday they will look back on all of these pieces with fond memories of this school year and remember that they can always turn a beautiful oops into something amazing!
Hyer Elementary Music: 1st Grade
1st grade students performed unpitched instruments to a story with Mrs. Conklin’s student teacher, Miss Beard
University Park Art: 4th Grade
UP 4th graders tried their hand at pixelated art by working in teams to create paper chains that form a picture. Students had to create their image on grid paper, determine their colors, and then figure out their total color strip counts. After assigning teammates to various rows, students connected their individual paper chains with white paper strips to form their overall image.
