Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Build original AI-assisted art and media in this two-week Dartmouth academy for high school students.
Course Description
How can emerging technology expand an artist's choices without replacing the artist's judgment? Students investigate the relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence across art, design, computer science, and digital media.
Hands-on workshops move through generative AI, digital illustration, image generation, video, music, interactive media, and creative coding. Students develop original multimedia work and collaborate on design challenges while practicing visual storytelling and user-centered design.
The course also examines authorship, intellectual property, bias, and responsible use. Critiques and presentations ask students to explain both the creative decisions and the technology behind their work, culminating in a multidisciplinary portfolio.
Students move from individual experiments to collaborative work, using critique to separate novelty from intention. The portfolio records how they made choices about audience, medium, and responsible use across several creative forms as the work developed, rather than treating every generated output as finished art.
This two-week, full-day intensive academy is part of Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars in Hanover, New Hampshire. The academy is fully developed and run by Dartmouth and taught by Dartmouth faculty and expert instructors. Residential and commuter students participate throughout the day, pairing focused academic work with campus life and growing independence.
What Will You Do?
• Experiment with generative AI and digital illustration
• Create original image, video, music, and interactive-media projects
• Use creative coding in an art or design project
• Apply visual storytelling and user-centered design
• Examine authorship, copyright, bias, and responsible innovation
• Collaborate on an interdisciplinary creative-technology challenge
• Present and critique a portfolio of original work
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Create original multimedia work with AI-assisted and digital design tools
• Evaluate ethical questions involving authorship, copyright, bias, and responsible use
• Present and critique creative work while explaining the role of human judgment
Students leave with a multidisciplinary creative portfolio, greater technical fluency, and a clearer sense of how art, design, media, and computing can intersect.
Why Creative AI Skills Matter
Creative AI requires more than learning a tool. Students must define an idea, make deliberate aesthetic choices, test what a system produces, and decide what belongs in the final work. That process develops visual communication, experimentation, and critical judgment.
Questions about authorship, copyright, and bias add an ethical dimension to making. Students learn to explain where technology helped, where it limited the work, and how their own decisions shaped the result. Those habits matter in art, design, media, marketing, computing, and any field where people create with emerging technology.
Who Should Attend?
This academy is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are curious about art, design, music, filmmaking, digital media, coding, or generative AI. It is a strong fit for students who want to make original work while asking thoughtful questions about how technology affects creativity.
Participants should be ready to experiment with unfamiliar tools, revise after critique, collaborate on a design challenge, and explain their creative choices. Prior coding or advanced art experience is not listed as a requirement. Curiosity, responsible technology use, and a willingness to share work in progress are the most useful starting points.
Why Dartmouth?
Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars gives high school students a concentrated introduction to college-level learning in Hanover, New Hampshire. The intensive, noncredit academies are fully developed and run by Dartmouth and taught by Dartmouth faculty and expert instructors. Students explore current ideas through discussion, projects, and sustained work that helps them test an academic interest in depth.
Residential students live in Dartmouth residence halls, eat at 53 Commons, and can join workshops and counselor-supported evening and weekend activities. Time in Hanover and the Upper Valley adds a distinctive New England setting, while the broader experience helps students build independence and clarify what they may want to study next.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive