Exceptional Facilities
As part of the school's master plan, St. John's recently upgraded and expanded our arts facilities.
The Donatelli Center for the Visual and Performing Arts is the home of our visual, instrumental and vocal arts programs. The renovated and expanded fine arts studios opened in the fall of 2015, and our new 15,000-square-foot performing arts wing opened in August 2016. Among the new facilities in the Donatelli Center are the Harlan Art Studio, Welch-Mullikin Band Room, Joe Sorge ’64 Band Office, Rev. Trotter Music Room and the Laura Zellers Strings Office.
In the winter of 2017, St. John's opened the new theater complex located within the Cap Mona Family Student Center. It includes a director’s office, dressing rooms, bathrooms, a green room, additional storage for props and costumes and the Gene Morrill Black Box Theater.
Fine Arts Studios
The vision for our students is a professional space that serves as a vehicle for artists to use and share their gifts. This new space gives our artists an opportunity to create, display and share their varying styles and techniques. Over the past 15 years, our Fine Arts Department has expanded from one teacher with four classes to three full-time teachers and 14 different sections of art, including three AP courses.
To accommodate this growth, in 2015 we completely renovated and upgraded our existing arts studios, producing a new space designed to house large projects and encourage creative thinking. We will also expand the adjacent outdoor patio, providing students the opportunity to use the outdoors as inspiration for their work.
Performing Arts Wing
The facilities for our nationally renowned band programs and music classes - where student participation has more than tripled over the last decade - are one of our greatest needs. That is why we built the new 15,000-square-foot Donatelli Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.
This new space added three performance classrooms outfitted with exceptional acoustic design, three academic classrooms, individual practice rooms, elevator access and enough storage space to accommodate a dozen bands and hundreds of instruments. The new performing arts wing opened in August 2016.
Theater Complex
In the winter of 2017, St. John's opened the Cap Mona Family Student Center, which houses the new theater complex. It is outfitted with a director’s office, dressing rooms, bathrooms, a green room, additional storage for props and costumes and the Gene Morrill Black Box Theater - a small, flexible space that can be easily rearranged to perform intimate plays, run in-depth rehearsals or hold special events such as recitals, lectures or small concerts. This theater complex gives our teachers and students the flexible space and scheduling they need to fully support all of their amazing work - and the foundation to think bigger.