Express yourself.
The Studio Art program is a place where students of all abilities can learn to express their visual creativity. Students follow their own unique artistic path while experimenting with a wide range of traditional and digital media.
Art teacher Nina Ollikainen working with students.
Courses
All students participate in several exhibits, and student artwork is featured throughout the School. Students take field trips to museums, galleries and artist studios, and guest artists visit every year. All Studio Art courses comply with UC standards.
Menlo School art students at work. Photo by Nina Ollikainen.
Menlo School art alumni have gone on to study at the following schools:
- Art Center College of Design
- California College of Art
- Cooper Union
- Maryland Institute College of Art
- Pratt Institute
- Rhode Island School of Design
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- School of Visual Arts
- Tulane University/Architecture
- UCB/College of Environmental Design
- UCD/Art/Design
- UCLA/Design and Media Arts
- University of Pennsylvania/Visual Studies
Nina Ollikainen
Nina Ollikainen, MD, earned a BS in Biology from Stanford, where she illustrated a Vertebrate Anatomy textbook, and an MD from USC’s Keck School of Medicine; she undertook her internship and residency in Anatomic Pathology at UCSF. Nina has many years of experience in painting, ceramics and digital art. A passion for Chinese brush painting led to a commission for a bronze statue of Professor Bei Ren Hou for the Bei Ren Hou Museum in Kunshan City, China. Nina has been affiliated with Menlo for many years as a scenic designer and artist for many Menlo drama productions, and she has also designed sets for the West Bay Opera, Palo Alto Players, Palo Alto Children’s Theater, and Peninsula Youth Opera.