The art that goes on in most high schools is usually relatively skill-based. At Oxbow, there is more emphasis on looking and seeing and more critical thinking about what you are doing, the human connection, that personal element. Through art you can begin to understand yourself better. That may be the biggest eye-opener for students. It is almost a preview of college. Get out of the mechanical factory high school education and get into something open, new, and invigorating in a small environment.

— Bill Barrett, Former Oxbow Board Member, Former Executive Director of Association, College of Art and Design (AICAD)

Our daughter graduated summa cum laude from NYU with a double major in Studio Art and Art History. She is now working for Calvin Klein. She is contemplating getting a law degree and pursuing a career repatriating art objects. She still keeps in touch with several of her Oxbow classmates and they have regular reunions in Manhattan... I would say that Oxbow was the best semester that any of my four children spent in their cumulative 16 years of high school. Our daughter was the right kid, and for the right kid you do a wonderful job. You changed her life. Thank you.

— John Powley, Parent

At Oxbow, I got to try inquiry-based learning for the first time. This allowed me to control the amount of rigor and the depth of research in my topic, as well as picking a topic that I found most interesting. From going through this new process of learning, I feel excited to go back to the rigor of my sending school to apply the inquiry-based perspective to my classes.

— Meave Cunningham, Fall, 2015

A School Like No Other

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