By Christina Gray
Nativity High School marked the end of its first academic year by inviting the school and local community to witness the fruits of its fine arts curriculum. The one-hour event held in the school gym on May 27 featured performances of group and solo sacred music and the unveiling and exhibition of student art projects.
Last fall, Nativity High School began its first academic year as the city of San Francisco’s only Catholic high school offering a classical curriculum. Presented as a “Catholic Academy of Arts and Sciences,” Nativity High School is an independent Catholic school and is located on the campus of Star of the Sea Parish along with Stella Maris Academy, a classical Catholic pre-K through eighth-grade school.
Head of School Diana Adamson said that the showcase represented “every student in the school,” where everyone takes four years of art and four years of music in addition to math and the sciences.
“Every student has a piece here today, every student sings,” she said. “And that is who we are as a classical school. We are not cultivating just a few with musical or artistic talent.”
The first half of the showcase opened with a performance of sacred music by students accompanied by members of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir School and its director Dr. Christoph Tietze. The second unveiled grouped student art exhibits which included illustration, portraits, perspective drawings, still life, and more.
“It’s been quite a journey; I can tell you that,” said classical art teacher Michael Ornido, a young Catholic artist fresh out of the Master’s program at the Sacred Art School Firenze in Florence, Italy, in 2024 when he accepted a position at Nativity. He told the gathering that his parent’s support when his talent emerged at a very young age taught him that “90 percent of this job is believing in these students.” His painting of an impassive Christ accepting his crucified fate was also on display.
“I couldn’t have done this without my teacher,” said ninth-grader Taichi Lim, as he smiled next to a display of self-portraits in charcoal, including his own.
Francisco Flores Orellano’s exquisitely detailed drawing of a pair of hands in prayer was displayed under a banner entitled “Highlight Masterpieces.”
Clare Alado-Hallquist took a moment away from serving refreshments to guests along with other students, to kneel for a photo next to her charcoal likeness. Students completed not only self-portraits, but portraits of their classmates too.
Adamson pointed out an aspect of classical education on display at the showcase in addition to the art itself: its sequential nature.
“You’ll notice that they haven’t even started color yet,” she said of the monochromatic pieces. For two years, students work in just black and white before exploring color.
The curriculum is built around mastery, she said, as opposed to dabbling.
“At this stage, it’s about getting really good at two dimensional drawing,” she said.
To learn more about Nativity High School visit nativityhs.org.
Photos: Christina Gray and Peter Marlow
