Directed by their classroom teachers, Preschool children are encouraged to explore a vast array of interesting media. Crayons, markers, paint of all kinds, chalk, clay, collage materials, and paper of all sizes and textures become works of art in the creative hands of a preschool child. Many art activities are organized around seasonal themes.
Beginning at age 6, students attend weekly classes directed by a visual arts specialist. Working with the classroom teachers, the specialist creates projects that coordinate with current classroom studies and includes a wide variety of both two and three- dimensional art, including pottery, which is fired in the school's kiln. Students keep their projects in their classrooms so that they may work on them freely during the course of the week. Each classroom offers shelves of materials designed to encourage spontaneous creativity. Many of the students' daily lessons involve the arts.
Every spring the children of WRM host an Art Fair. Each student exhibits several of his/her pieces and the entire community attends an open house and art fair. The Multi-purpose Room is converted into a temporary art gallery for this occasion.
Exploration of the Performing Arts is process-oriented and begins in developmentally appropriate ways with the very youngest WRM children. Children gradually gain skill and confidence in speaking in front of others as preschoolers through participation in daily community meetings and sharing time in their classrooms. As they get older, students are provided with experiences in creative drama and improvisation, usually connected with cultural studies, within their classrooms. Music classes often incorporate drama. Older students frequently prepare presentations and dramatizations for their classmates on completion of science and cultural projects. Spanish students prepare and present a puppet show in Spanish each year.
Middle School students are offered a semester of theater arts under a specialist as an elective each spring. Often these classes culminate in a dramatization of a famous work such as a Shakespearian play at the end of the semester.