CREATIVE Spaces

The CFIT Black Box Theater & Green Screen Studio was created by upcycling the former former band room of the old Russell Middle School. The transformation of this creative space includes:

• A ceiling mounted pipe grid
• An array of programmable DMX lighting fixtures
• A DMX Lighting controller
• A theatrical curtain and drape system
• A chroma key green wall
• Cinema quality video projection and audio equipment
• Audio Rack with Soundboard, Mixer, and Amplifier
• A variety of flexible staging boxes

The audience capacity of the Black box theater is approximately 70 individuals.  Productions, performances, and presentations have been successfully run in the CFIT Black Box by classes of the ArtsNow Professional Learning Residency, students of the Arts & Innovation Magnet Program, and the Winder-Barrow High School DramaDoggs Theater Troupe.

A multipurpose collaboration room is located in a double sized classroom with an accordian wall to allow for both large group and smaller breakout sessions as needed. The collaboration room features flexible seating arrangements for up to sixty adults with audio-visual presentation equipment available. This space has proven excellent for numerous project planning, professional learning, and collaborative team meetings for students and adults alike.

A Communicative Arts Lab is slated to open with the 2021-22 academic year dedicated to all facets of effective communication: writing, speaking, reading, listening, researching, illustrating, and illustrating.

The Dance Studio at CFIT was developed through the repurposing of a large instructional space formerly used as both an agriculture classroom and family consumer science lab.  This large, 1000+ square foot space is now dedicated to movement, dance, and choreography. The space features student lockers, mirrors and barres, large format video projection, innovative audio enhancement systems, as well as a small dressing room and laundry facilities.

Classes of students across many grade levels have already had great experiences choreographing, rehearsing, and performing in this space. With an upcoming addition of a pipe and drape system to enhance the space, more formal student dance recitals and small group performances are sure to follow.

Created out of a former middle school engineering and technology classroom, the Digital Media Arts Lab provides the hardware and software for creating art in numerous digital formats.

Dedicated desktop computers in the lab with more advanced hardware specs allow students access to an expanded selection of creativity and productivity applications.

The flexibility granted to the campus by having an entire gymnasium converted to multi-purpose use is monumental and dynamic. This space has already hosted system-wide events including the Science & Engineering Fair, and Fine Arts Festival Art Galleries, but has also been used for much larger regional events, such as the Northeast Georgia FIRST Lego League Robotics Competition.

Collaborations between the school system and its partners like ArtsNOW learning, and the Winder Library have also utilized this incredible space for gatherings, exhibits, presentations, and performances.

The Farm to School Courtyard came into existence through a partnership with the University of Georgia's "Grow it, Know it" program as part of a 2017 USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant. Through that partnership, along with subsequent collaborations with the Barrow County Extension Office and others in our community, CFIT's innovative learning garden has become a highlight of many a young person's daily routine.  Numerous students have developed their understanding and appreciation of good food, nutrition, fresh local produce, and ecological balance through:

• Preparing garden beds
• Planting, tending, and harvesting crops
• Cooking and eating fresh meals and snacks grown on site
• Researching and experiencing the benefits of pollinators, composting, and water conservation
• Raising a poultry flock from egg to egg

The makerspace and robotics lab at CFIT, dedicated to former BCSS Innovator Ed Morrison, is a facility unlike any other, and is the envy of many other school systems. This enormous 5,400+ square foot space is dedicated to the encouragement of invention and discovery through tinkering, making, and engineering.The space is equipped with:

• Eight 3D Design & Printing Stations
• Standard, Large Format, and Resin 3D Printers
• Two Mac Design Stations
• Vinyl Cutting Machine
• Four FLL Robotics Dual Competition Fields
• One FTC Robotics Competition Field
• Lego EV3 Mindstorms Robotics components
• REV Robotics components
• Construction Tools & Materials
• Electronics & Microprocessor Supplies and Materials
• Project Tables

Through funding support from our partners at the Winder Rotary and ArtsNow Learning, the Digital Media Lab at CFIT is fully equipped with desktop workstations and peripherals that allow students to learn how to create professional-quality digital audio and visual productions. Each workstation has studio-quality microphones and headphones, MIDI controllers, and a suite of software that includes Adobe Elements applications as well a collaborative web-based Digital Audio Workstation, called Soundtrap for Education by Spotify.

Click below to sample creations from our Arts & Innovation Magnet (AIM) Program students in the CFIT Digital Media Laboratory.

Podcasts

Digital Music

Formerly serving as a school media center, the Professional Learning Center at CFIT is the central hub of the building. The PL Center is a great space for board room sized presentations, meetings, professional learning sessions, and workshops. Countless examples of its utility already exist with the space regularly being booked far in advance on every teacher inservice or professional learning day. The PL Center has flexible seating for over 100 adults as well as audio-visual presentation equipment on site.

The Public Art Courtyard is a flexible project space where students are able to create on a much larger scale and experience hands-on environmental and sensory sculpture. Occasional plein air painting sessions take place in the courtyard as well as other outdoor art experiences.

Also opening during the 2021-22 academic year, the 3D Arts and Ceramics Studio will add new creative opportunities to those on campus. Pottery wheels are coming to the space, and a new kiln room is being fitted with all the necessary equipment and supplies for students to experience the process of pottery construction. As the space develops, more 3D mediums will be added to expand the opportunities in the space.

The existing visual arts classroom continues in its original intended purpose as a place for students to experience a wide variety of visual arts techniques and styles. All the visual arts materials and supplies you would expect are made available in the studio to ensure that a robust art experience is at the fingertips of all who enter.