Jill Muti, Ravenscroft’s first Fine Arts director from 1986 to 2004, remembers how, as the program grew, parents stepped up to support it. “Once we built the Fine Arts Center in 1993 and we had a much more sophisticated structure of what we were offering in the arts, it became very clear that we had some wonderful opportunities to involve our parents in meaningful ways,” she said.
That year, she formed the Fine Arts Guild, which helped organize choir and band performances, a dance program with City Ballet in Raleigh and countless drama and musical productions. Parents with a passion for music performed in the Faculty/Student Orchestra and on domestic and international tours.
In 1997 Muti launched the Madrigal Dinner, a Renaissance-themed spectacle that features an authentic four-course meal and the school’s musicians, singers and actors performing in period costumes. As one of Ravenscroft’s most enduring fine arts events, the festive production depends on volunteers who plan the menu, make props, sew costumes, sell tickets and decorate the young peoples’ theatre in Elizabethan style.