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    • Fine Art III began work on the Senior Banner during the last week of classes.

Senior Artists Create the Annual Class Banner

Arushi Srivastava '20, Assistant Webmaster
The Senior Banner is produced every year by a select number of willing students who then dedicate their time to making a piece of art that reflects their grade. 
“Five women in Fine Art III are working on the banner, plus some help from friends,” said Annie Nields ’17.

These students have the opportunity to create an object that acts as a time capsule for the memories of the senior class at Hopkins.

This year, Nields and the rest of her studio art class are the only students that even see the banner until it is first displayed at Prize Day.

Each year, the banner portrays a unique design that relates to the personalities of the senior class. This year, the theme of the banner is "Garden Scenes and Walking into New Horizons." Nields said, "We chose this theme because we wanted to picture growth and beauty and wanted to stay away from anything topical."

The main piece of the Senior Banner, other than its artwork and uniqueness, is the display of all the last names in the Senior Class.

The student artists work through a set process to create the banner. They first have to think of an interesting, unique, and realistic design that relates to all of the seniors. After the students have an idea about what the banner will look like, the next stage is making the idea a reality. "We are using gesso on papper and then tempera paint," said Nields.

The art teachers try to stay out of the process because they want this to be a project done by the seniors, themselves, But their years of guidance have resulted in a long array of banners that speaks to the history of the school.

Banner fan and English/Science teacher Canny Cahn noted: "Going back through the banners is a visual tour of the school's past. The earliest representations depict a single-sex male school and the pain of the war years. The conservatism of the fifties transitions into the art and attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s. The renderings show increasing artistic skills. The banner featuring student portraits of every class member in 2002 is uncanny! The most recent banners are full of personality; they often use the bones of the campus as a backdrop for the class."

Anticipation was high for the unfurling of the 2017 banner, which was revealed to the Hopkins Community on Prize Day.
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986 Forest Road
New Haven, Connecticut 06515
(203) 397-1001