From Google Meets to hands-on artistic experiments in just a few years, art at Atholton is picking up where they left off. The art program at Atholton High School took a huge toll over quarantine. The total enrollment dropped, the availability of resources for students was near to nothing, and the sheer ability to teach the classes as a hands-on art class was not possible.
Yet throughout all of this, the art program survived and is continuously getting closer to being back to how it was before the lockdown. At Atholton, there are three options for art: academic classes, an extracurricular club, and an honors society.
Quarantine was a difficult time for many students. For many, it was extremely tiring, difficult to focus, or simply just not their learning style. In art class specifically, it was next to impossible to conduct a normal class online.
“We told them that a part of their grade was to have their cameras on with their hands in view,”
said art teacher Scott Brenfleck. A big part of learning art is hands on help, but this couldn’t be achieved on a Google meet. Teachers had to round up as many materials as they could in an attempt to send out material packs to the students taking art online.
According to Brenfleck, some of the art teachers had to personally deliver these material packs to students’ residences. Even with this, the materials weren’t the best quality, but they got the job done regardless of the circumstances.
The art program now is back to flourishing. The total enrollment numbers went up since quarantine and students can finally get a real art class experience.
“It had a huge impact on us, but we’re resilient and everything is coming back. People are again finding that they can find that safe place to express themselves and be creative. It’s coming back to life,” said Brenfleck.
Brenfleck believes that without in person instruction, students aren’t able to get the most out of art.
Students now, once again, have access to better materials as well. Not only is the art program bouncing back, but also available are the National Art Honor Society and the club, Art for All, as well.
The National Honor Society is just one of many honor society opportunities at Atholton. In this honors society, students that sign up and pay the fifteen dollar enrollment fee get to participate in various activities that challenge the artistic mind but still benefit the school at the same time.
he honor society’s most recent plan was creating handcrafted Lunar New Year lanterns to hang in the hallways. According to Camryn Caroff, a senior in the Art Honors Society, the main objective of the honor society is to, “focus on spreading art throughout Atholton and the local community, while doing tasks that we find fun.”
Brenfleck added onto this thought and explained that activities like this bring students together and give the school a way to represent art all throughout Atholton.
Art for All is a club for all levels of art experience and for many, it is an outlet to express themselves. Unlike the honor society, Art for All is free and less skill dependent, which makes it a good environment for anyone that wants to experiment with art. Club leader Natalie Zepf said,
“I don’t personally want to do art in college but I like to draw so I wanted a place where students could feel comfortable doing art without the pressure of having to meet service hours and deadlines and things. It’s just a chill place to draw.”
Art for All is a safe place welcome to anyone, and is another great artistic opportunity to take advantage of at Atholton.