The Skip Viragh Center for the Arts will play an important role in advancing Chaminade's already excellent arts programs consisting of music, drama, visual and communication arts.
Some facts about the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts:
- 80,000 square foot building
- 1,000 seat Rev. Ralph Siefert, S.M. Theatre that will be used for dramatic productions, band performances, school assemblies, large gatherings and all-school masses
- 150 seat black box Little Theater for plays and lectures
- Two large band rehearsal rooms and a percussion room
- 5 classrooms for visual arts
- Graphic Design/Music Theory classroom
- 7 small music practice rooms
- Large scene shop for scene construction
Fine arts are an important component of the Chaminade experience. The school actively promotes the importance and value of the arts to the community. The mission of the Fine Arts department, within a Catholic Marianist tradition, is to cultivate the spiritual, intellectual, creative, and aesthetic sensibilities of every student through the three disciplines of music, performing arts, and visual arts.
The department actively seeks to find and nurture individual God-given talents of students through focusing on three essential components:
- Craft – the physical, technical, hands-on nature of the arts.
- Critique – the verbal and written articulation of artists’ ideas about art per se, about their own art, and about the art of others.
Appreciation and History – knowledge of historical and contemporary ways of making and producing art and the appreciation of artistic diversity
Chaminade offers over ten different music ensembles including concert bands, jazz bands, jazz combos, percussion ensembles and pep band. The award winning program is student centered and each year band students work with outstanding guest conductors, clinicians and performers. More than one third of Chaminade students are involved in the music program.
The Chaminade Drama Department hosts a minimum of three main stage productions every year - two full-stage production plays and an annual musical.
In addition to the music and drama programs, there are a wide variety of fine arts opportunities available for Chaminade students to participate in including: Fine Arts Week, S.A.L.M. -Student Art and Literary Magazine, Chaminade Film Institute and Photography Club.