The A-Team: The John Cooper School’s extensive and impressive Arts program

THE WOODLANDS, TX – STEM seems to be the major watchphrase of modern education, and the importance of the implementation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in curricula cannot be denied. However, one integral education category is frequently overlooked: the Arts. STEM, we humbly submit, should instead be STEAM.

While, sadly, the arts are often among the first programs affected nationally during budget challenges in some schools, the top-ranked school in The Woodlands takes a different approach, wholeheartedly embracing and investing in its vibrant arts program. The John Cooper School has been providing performances in acting and music – as well as significantly promoting all other aspects of the fine arts – for years, with no sign of taking a bow and stepping off the stage anytime soon.

The school’s visual and performing arts programs are designed to provide students with classroom instruction in each separate discipline, as well as performance and exhibition opportunities. No aspect of a student’s artistic side is left untouched, whether performance- or visual-based.

Cooper’s Performing Arts program – consisting of band, choir, dance, drama, general music, and technical theatre – guarantees a well-rounded appreciation of the students’ chosen specialties (even allowing for significant cross-pollination to maximize multiple talents housed in the same person). Under this program, students pursue passions, take creative risks, develop and enhance confidence, practice creative problem solving, and cultivate artistic skills, all for personal growth as well as community support with public performances and exhibitions.

Even the youngest students are exposed to the arts at the earliest opportunity. In the music category, students in Cooper’s lower school are taught healthy singing practices and proper instrument techniques to lay the foundation for music literacy, music appreciation, active music-making, and performance. Students are introduced to a wide variety of instruments and participate in performance opportunities.

The music program continues in grades 5 - 12 with the school’s band program, culminating in Wind Ensemble for the high school crowd. From pep bands and drumlines to concerts and festivals – including participation in TPSMEA (Texas Private School Music Educators Association) and TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) honor ensembles – students begin with basic technique of woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments and progress through study and performance opportunities.

For those music-makers whose best instruments are their own voices, Cooper’s choir program nurtures raw talent and grows it to considerable experience, beginning with sight-reading skills, vocal development, and techniques before progressing to harmonies, tonality, breath control, key signatures, and complex rhythms with meter changes. Like the band students, there are opportunities galore to perform in concerts, auditions for solo work, and honor groups.

In the non-music side, budding thespians are taught the ropes in the school’s drama program. Every aspect of acting is covered, from proper warmup techniques, voice and movement instruction, audition monologues, character analysis, and foundational principals of theatre. For those who prefer to write over do, the program also offers classes in script analysis and scene study with multiple performance opportunities available each year.

Now, not all who love theatre love to act. The ‘business’ – that is to say, the off-stage aspects – end of theatre is also covered with the school’s technical theatre program, which focuses on strengthening leadership, reinforcing terminology, and understanding the processes for staffing and running a production. This integral program to the arts world allows students to use a wide range of media to apply design, drafting, and time management skills in the construction of production sets.

For those students who are more light on their toes in the most literal sense, Cooper’s dance instruction begins in the 6th grade and continues through the Upper School. The program focuses on building student confidence, ensemble techniques, and a supportive community of dancers by introducing and investigating various styles of dance. From the classics like ballet, jazz, and tap, to the modern like contemporary and hip hop, every aspect of dance is pursued. Much like the band and chorus concerts and the dramatic performances, students of the dance program get their showcase each May with a full scale, all-class performance.

In fact, performances are an integral, practical part of the programs, giving real-world experience to educational pursuit. Cooper’s annual Upper School Musical – which takes place annually in the Glenn Performing Arts Center – involves a live orchestra, complex choreography, and contributions from the entire performing arts community, including technical and costume crews. In addition to the musical, Upper School drama students present standalone performances, such as the Upper School Drama Performance in the Glenn Performing Arts Center Black Box.

Cooper’s Holiday Concert series highlights performances from every grade level, pre-K and up. Highlights include the 5th - 12th grade choir concert, featuring harmonies and holiday classics, and the 6th grade and middle school band concerts. The Chamber Strings Concert also features advanced students performing works by historical composers, while the dance program culminates each May in a combined 6th-12th grade performance titled Life!

Alongside the performing arts program, The John Cooper School places equal emphasis on the visual arts with a wide range of offerings, including drawing, painting, sculpture, welding, warm and fused glass, small metals, casting, mixed media, printmaking, photography, ceramics, 3D animation, and digital imaging.

From basic elements of design and principles of art taught in the lower school, to creative problem-solving with an emphasis on original thought and practical applications taught in middle school, to conceptualized thinking and advanced technical skills taught in upper school, students are given all the tools and opportunities to find and promote points of view, express individuality, and develop a lifelong appreciation of the arts.

Cooper’s Fine Arts programs have the facilities equal to the task, including a 500-seat theatre, a 125-seat black box theatre, art studios, music rooms, a multimedia production lab, a 3D animation lab, band room, chorus room, dance studio, scene shop, and costume room. Additionally, each spring, the entire campus is treated as a canvas with the school’s Fine Arts Festival featuring performances on multiple stages, with activities including student art exhibitions, live music, dance, choir performances, pop-up museums, faculty talks, classroom events, games, and interactive workshops. This amazing tribute allows parents, students, and members of the community to enjoy a variety of exhibitions, performances, and activities from all grade levels.

At Cooper, arts isn’t just academic. There are tangible outcomes of the benefits of the Fine Arts programs. Success stories of artistically inclined alums ‘making it’ in the real world include 2017 graduated and Broadway actress Mallory Bechtel, and popular YouTube influencers Colby and Cory Cotton. Students don’t even need to graduate to have their artistic talents recognized: recently, current enrollees Nick Hagle, Blake Lopez, Sawyer Pate, Simran Patel, and Rocco Rovirosa were all named among the Top 50 Horticulture Artists at the 2025 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Additionally, past scholarship winners include Class of 2019 alums Haley Hinch, who won first place in photography, and Peyton Tague, who won first place in digital art through The Woodlands Arts Council.

Teaching and learning is just the beginning of an artistic journey; promoting the arts is also integral. Cooper has this covered with Inkblots magazine, the annual Upper School publication of student literature and art. The student editors and staff members choose an inspiring theme, select student literature and art to be published from all of the student submissions, and conceptualize and design the magazine using professional publishing software. Spotlighting the power of the written word, Inkblots has received numerous awards from prestigious scholastic associations.

Further, The John Cooper School’s Fine Arts Council supports and promotes the fine arts program and community with activities that include sponsoring and volunteering at events such as the Fine Arts Festival and Signatures Author Series, as well as providing students with fine arts tools, supplies, and resources.

With its ubiquitous, in-house education and practical application, community outreach and performance schedules, and Township-wide support, The John Cooper School’s arts programs are well-equipped to give students all they need to succeed in the real world of an industry that would cow even the most stouthearted who are less prepared. Combined with the school’s 100 percent college matriculation rate, with graduates frequently accepted to top national and international universities, the ability to add a little beauty to the world via the performing and visual arts, is safely secured at The John Cooper School.

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