Once we have gotten beyond the basics of art—circles, squares, space, perception—how do we keep our children interested in the arts? And not just at a rudimentary level. What about getting them really involved? What about guiding them into the deeper, more meaningful depths of the arts by involving them in the finer aspects of how this relates to not only art but also history, music, and drama—and one that also helps your child develop a closer relationship with the Lord?

Like the creators of so many other great homeschool resources, Vivian Doublestein began The Master’s Academy of Fine Arts out of the need of her own family. In the process, she noticed that many homeschool parents didn’t have the opportunity or ability to expose their children to the fine arts from a historical perspective. That’s when the Lord gave her a great idea …

TOS: Welcome, Vivian! Your purpose for The Master’s Academy of Fine Arts (MAFA) is “to glorify God through excellence in the arts” while maintaining your vision of “instructing children from a Godly perspective in the arts so that they can renew the culture and reclaim the surrendered battlefield as seen in Isaiah 61:1-4.” That’s exciting and very necessary in this day and age. Would you please explain your threefold vision of Reclaim, Restore, and Release?

VIVIAN: My husband, Barry, and I have always seen our family’s mission to be one of restoration. That includes everything from restoring old houses and old cars to relationships, the functioning of His Body, and the renewal of the family unit, so it was a natural step for me to desire to see the same types of things applied to the arts which have always been so much a part of my life. As a classically trained pianist, I struggled to find my place in this world. As a Christian, my musical training was not really appreciated or encouraged, and in my musical world, my faith was anathema. Working through this deep rift in my soul with God’s help, He led me to multiple chapters in Isaiah, but especially to chapter 61. It was there that I saw a need to reclaim the gifts of creativity that belonged to God, and how they were being held captive by the enemy. I also saw a great need to find others like me who had gotten caught between the worlds of being an artist and being a Christian and learning to reconcile the two according to God’s Word. Finally I saw in my favorite verses (3-4) that God would reclaim for Himself what had been lost, restore it to His purposes, and release it into the world for His Glory. We are all about raising up a generation of students who will be seen as a planting of the Lord to bring glory to His name through the excellence that they portray in their creative endeavors.

TOS: What are the foundational principles of your core classes?

VIVIAN: Well, the inspiration for the whole program really came from a semester I spent in Vienna, Austria, while I was in college. We had a great little Austrian professor who always said, “You Americans are such hamburgers—you never learn history the right way.” And then he’d rap you over the head with his cane! I puzzled over that thought for two months or more and then one day while walking down the street I had an “ah-ha” moment. I suddenly realized why Schubert sounded like it did, because I could see it, I could taste it, I could hear it.… I was immersed in a culture and a time that made the music what it was. I finally understood what it meant to learn history the right way … all in context!

That revelation, joined with my newfound purpose for reclaiming what had been lost, and a never-ending love of unit studies, led to the development of our exposure program. The whole point was for students to understand the arts from their historical context so that they could have the same kind of an ah-ha as I had.

Each school has its own vision of why God planted them where He did. Since we’ve never advertised our program in its 16 years of existence, and yet we’ve started well over 25 schools strictly by word of mouth, I figured God was building these schools and He must have a purpose for placing them in these far-flung locations, so I should find out what that purpose was! So as we establish a new school, we spend a great deal of time in prayer seeking God’s desire for that location. Then that vision statement permeates the curriculum and unifies all of the pieces, making each school totally unique.

Every spring each school prays about the spiritual emphasis that it will concentrate on for the upcoming year. That emphasis will always continue to fulfill their vision as a school, and it will also affect the choices of historical topics to be studied for that year.

Each week the students learn history, art, music, and drama from an integrated perspective, which includes uniting the historical study with works of art, literature, and the music of that particular time period, all the while developing a theme based on the vision for each unique location.

In addition, we have made great strides to not only meet but exceed the National Arts Standards. It has always been my belief that as children of the King of the Universe, we should strive to be at least as good as those who are of the world. This would mean that Julliard and Broadway should not be our end goal but our starting point, and we should excel beyond that because we want to serve our God with all of our hearts using the gifts that He has given us.

TOS: Your classes are taught in six rotating historical periods: Ancient, Medieval/ Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern in a six-year cycle. Does that mean that one period is taught per year?

VIVIAN: Yes, that’s correct. Each new location starts at the Ancient time period and moves forward through the six cycles. The good thing is that because of the many variables between locations, you can do the same time period multiple times and they will never be the same. In addition, because each year is self-contained, you can join the program in any time period and not feel like you’re lost in the system.

TOS: What age ranges are your courses geared toward and what sort of commitment is required?

VIVIAN: We have traditionally been for ages 5-18, but over the last few years we have added many new facets to the program.

… [W]e developed a 3-4-year-old program that is available at several of our locations, but not all…. This is just a oneday- a-week program and requires no outside commitment.

Then we have our basic exposure program which I described earlier, and that meets one day per week for 3-4 hours, 25-32 weeks a year depending on the location. There is minimal outside work in this program.

Next we noticed that we needed to add a stepped-up level for the junior high and high school students who had been with us in the exposure program for one rotation. We also noticed that in that group we had two divisions, one group that wanted to continue their exposure to the arts but at a stepped-up level, and another group that was definitely going to go on in the arts in college or even as a career choice. …

The Masterkey level is for students ages 12-18. While still continuing to teach the arts from a historical perspective, the classes at this level are now based on a specific scope and sequence designed to hone and develop their skills in multiple areas of the arts, as well as continuing to give them exposure to new skills that were unable to be taught at the lower levels. There is outside homework in this level, and an expanded day of 4-5 hours, but still meeting just one day per week.

Our Artios Academy of Visual and Performing Arts is a model based on the best performing arts high schools in the country and is open to students ages 14 and up. In this program, students are still exposed to the history of the time period through a worldview/arts history combination program. In addition, students may choose a major in their area of greatest interest. Our current majors include art (in multiple disciplines), theater (tech or performance), music, film, script writing, or they can choose to be a fine arts major and mix multiple interests into one degree. This program meets 9 hours one day per week but has multiple outside performance, rehearsal, and studio obligations. This is the most demanding of our programs.

Because we were continually losing our teens to the public schools due to parents not feeling confident to homeschool through high school, we have recently added our Cordis Academic program. This program meets an additional day per week and is only open to students who are enrolled in one of the Master’s Academy programs.

The name Cordis means the threefold cord, because the premise of the program is to unite the spiritual with the academic and the artistic. The structure itself is a complete paradigm shift from standard educational practices that place the academics at the core and allow creativity and the arts to float around the outside if there is extra time and extra money. Given the recent research showing that ALL academics are enhanced through the arts, we have shifted our focus. Knowing that the first thing we learn about God in Scripture is that He is a creator, we decided to make creativity the CORE of our program and allow all of the academics to emanate from that center. All core classes are taught (history, English, math, science, foreign language), but they are again taught from the historical context … and are all taught from a hands-on, Charlotte Mason type approach.

Finally, because 78% of the students coming out of our programs go on in the arts, and they were not finding the kind of arts education they were looking for at the higher levels, we are beginning a non-traditional college level program in the summer of 2007, known as Terebinth. The explanation for that program will be another whole article, I’m sure!

TOS: How will studying the arts improve a student’s academics and IQ? Does this include improving SAT scores?

VIVIAN: Absolutely. There has been much research done in the past few years on the benefits of the arts in educational achievement. According to a 2001 College Entrance Exam Board Study, “Students with coursework or experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal section of the SAT and 41 points higher on the math section.” A University of North Carolina report reveals that “schools that produce the highest academic achievement in the US today are spending 20-30% of the day on the arts, with special emphasis on music.” A study conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation stated that “music majors have the highest rate of admittance to medical school, a whopping 66.7%. Biochemistry majors, the subject area closest to medicine, only has a rate of 59.2%.” I could go on and on about this, but you get the idea. The arts are crucial to education and not something that can be left to do if and when you finish math and science homework. It has to be planned, integrated, and implemented on a consistent basis.

TOS: Vivian, this all sounds so wonderful! You have truly fulfilled a need in the homeschool community. How do we find out more about your locations?

VIVIAN: You can check our website at www.mafa.net. There you’ll find a list of all of our locations, the basic information about our programs, and ways to contact us if you’d like to consider beginning a program in your area.

TOS: Thank you for being with us today and for inspiring so many homeschoolers in pursuing the arts.

Vivian Doublestein is the president of The Master’s Academy of Fine Arts, which she founded in 1990. She began her career as a pianist at age 3 and holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance and a master’s in chamber music and accompanying. She and her husband, Barry, have three children, whom she homeschooled through high school. Vivian now spends her days teaching at MAFA-Gwinnett, serving as the Executive Director of The Masterworks Foundation, and working as a professional accompanist.

Kim Wolf loves living in a small Ohio town with her husband of 21 years and their two teen daughters. They have homeschooled since 1993 and are very active in the music ministry of their church. She is a Miami County homeschool coordinator, a freelance writer, speaker, and Ohio coordinator for TOS.
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