Walnut Hill School for the Arts

Walnut Hill was founded in 1893. Walnut Hill School for the Arts is an independent boarding and day high school offering a transformational educational experience purposefully designed for student artists in grades 9–12, with a postgraduate year also available. We offer unparalleled training in dance; music; theater; visual art; and writing, film & media arts, complemented by a robust and innovative academic curriculum.

Every aspect of our program promotes our students' growth as bold artists, curious learners, and mindful citizens. Students from across the country and around the globe come together to form a dynamic community on our scenic campus located in Natick, Massachusetts, just west of Boston. Guided by master teachers and supported by peers from a variety of artistic backgrounds, Walnut Hill students graduate prepared to succeed in college and beyond.

Core Values

• At Walnut Hill School for the Arts, you are welcome as you are. Our strength as a community comes from the different people, places, and ideas that inform our work. We strive to accept and celebrate each member’s unique contributions, and we draw on our collective experiences in order to live as more compassionate global citizens.
• We believe that art and creative thinking are essential to promoting a more tolerant, mindful, and beautiful world. We thrive on curiosity and discovering answers to questions that have not yet been asked. Through imagination, fresh ideas, and innovation, we push ourselves to think differently, embrace challenges, and try again.
• We strive towards excellence in everything we do. Excellence in any endeavor - artistic, academic, and personal - is not an end. It requires sustained effort, recognizes the possibility of failure, and encourages engagement with the ongoing process of achieving success.
• Growth is an evolving process of awakening and renewal that happens when we are mindful of where we are and where we want to be. It requires self-awareness, resilience, and the courage to embrace the unfamiliar. This journey begins with the idea that we grow with every experience we encounter and the understanding that curiosity engenders lifelong learning.
• Personal conduct and accountability are expressions of the esteem with which we hold ourselves and others. We act with integrity to cultivate an environment where we treat one another, our work, and our physical space with deep respect. At Walnut Hill, respect is maintained through trust, honesty, and mutual understanding.

Walnut Hill seeks to cultivate a spirit of inclusivity and multiculturalism by weaving diverse curriculum, programming, and practices into the academic, artistic, and social fabric of the school. We believe it is critical to educate members of our community to be responsible global citizens. In order to navigate the tensions and challenges of our world, it is imperative to understand where we each came from, where we are, and where we are going.

We promote a sense of worth and belonging in everyone. We ask that all members of the school community consider those who are marginalized. We ask all members to attend thoughtfully to instances of difference including but not limited to opinion, age, ability, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, race, and religion. We expect community members to both form and express their own viewpoints, consider and understand divergent perspectives, and confront difference with maturity, civility, and respect.

Our mission to educate talented, accomplished, and intellectually engaged young artists from all over the world is as critical today as it has ever been. Walnut Hill prepares students to face the challenges of the 21st century. The many and varied successes of our alumni are a powerful indicator of how a Walnut Hill education continues to serve our students well, enabling them to grow into the creative, artistic, and professional leaders of the future.

It is a time of exciting change on the Walnut Hill campus, as we reinvigorate our artistic and academic programs; witness the evolution of our new Writing, Film & Media Arts major; and open our first ever dedicated arts building, The Delbridge Family Center for the Arts. Amidst these shifts we have remained steadfast to our mission of training and educating the world’s most talented young artists, knowing that within them lies our greatest hope for a world that is more tolerant, more mindful, and more beautiful.