Art Club paints a window into students’ imaginations
September 20, 2022
Walking into the Art Club, a student is met with chatter, the sound of pencils scratching in a sketchbook, and a lecture or a presenter showcasing a piece of art they had done that week.
“(The club) will open up the doors to be able to find giftedness in the area of arts,” said club sponsor and Spanish teacher Glenda Hurtado. “We’ve had students that come in gifted in the arts, but we don’t have any arts. But now we have an Art Club where we’re able to open up the doors, and see that talent being portrayed in many different forms.”
Art Club meets every Monday and every non-Fiesta Friday in Room 20. There, members are assigned a weekly drawing topic. They will also follow a curriculum that aims to teach students fundamental artistic skills like composition and perspective, created by the Presidents Gabrielle Lashley and Naamah Silcott. Following the curriculum is not strictly necessary, so club members can show off anything they have created at the end of the week.
“I really want to go more on a curriculum type thing where we’re doing different lessons each week because the thing about young artists is – there’s a lot that we don’t know how to do,” Co-President Lashley said.
Though there is a curriculum, the Art Club aims to be a place of community for artists, where students are able to chat amongst themselves while they draw, both through praise and constructive criticism, alongside the support they provide to their presenting peers.
“I would like to get better at anatomy,” said sophomore Jo Sanders, a member of the Art Club. “I would also like to get better at color theory.”
The Art Club is not yet able to supply students with prerequisite materials like sketchbooks. They hope to do so in the future, but as of now, students are expected to bring their own supplies. However, textbooks covering the curriculum will be created by the presidents, who own many instructional textbooks at their homes.
“Students being able to fully get engaged with what they want to do creatively,” said Co-President Silcott. “They don’t have the expectation of having to do it for an assignment, and they don’t necessarily have to do the prompt. (Club members) just have to present whatever they were proud of that they were working on, and that would be fine too.”