If a student were to to roam down the halls of City High School, they may notice the Mona Lisa uncharacteristically dabbing on flyers. These flyers dot the corridors and monitors of CHS with flashy images that are unfamiliar to her typical renaissance sentiment. This showy display is an effort to promote City High’s Art Club. 

“It’s definitely an eye catcher,” one student said. 

The ad was supposedly designed by Micheal Close, former City High student and current art teacher at CHS last year. It was made for the school’s art club; the club that Close himself had grown up with. Three weeks ago marked the recommencement of the club, starting on the customary Tuesday after school at 4:00 PM and ending at 5:00 PM.

After the first meeting of the club, Close was asked about his favorite memory. 

“I don’t know how to answer that. I love film fest every year but last year we did that mural at the American Legion that was quite a lot of fun,” Close said.

Dan Peterson, City High art teacher, was also asked the same question. 

“My favorite memory of Art Club would probably be of our field trips to Chicago,” Peterson said. “The two times we’ve been on field trips since I’ve been here it’s been to Chicago. On a yellow school bus, there and back in one day. Pretty long days. We go to the museum, we walked around downtown, we go to a sculpture park. We cram as much art in the afternoon as we can.  Now that I think about it, there were kind of hard days. But I do look back on them with lots of good memories eight hours on a bus. A school bus.”

Jocelyn Heart ’22 had a different take on the question.

“There are a lot of good memories but hanging out with my friends sticks out the most,” Heart said.

Peterson added later that he also enjoyed preparing for Film Fest. 

“It is always fun to watch what people make for the Film Fest trophies.” Peterson said. “We dismantle a bunch of dollar tree toys and recombine them in weird ways. Spray paint them gold. People come up with some pretty abominations.”

One student agreed with Peterson’s answer.

“It was really fun to make the statues for film fest. So, that was a good experience.” The student said.

But what exactly does one do in City High’s Art Club? The answer, unsurprisingly, is art.

“Pretty much anything students can take as a class at City High, they can do in art club,” said Close. “We have seniors who took an art class as [freshmen] but haven’t been able to fit one in who just want to make some art.” 

Students of the club replied in the same fashion as Close. 

“It is for people from the school to get together and do art related things. It is a really inviting space. People who care about what each other are doing and care about the art. So it’s a very friendly,” A student said. 

“The only planned event that we ever have is Film Fest,” Close said. “Other than that, it is an open art studio for students that want to continue to work on projects from their art classes or if they want to learn to do something else or for people who can’t fit art class into their schedule and if they just want to work on painting or ceramics.” 

Heart added the specifics of the club’s preparations for Film Fest. 

“For film fest, we judge. We manage everything. We vote and then we prepare the day before and the day of. We make popcorn,” Heart said.

City High’s Film Fest typically falls on the month of May, making the rest of the club’s meetings about art. For their first meeting, the club brought in around 25 to 30 people according to Close, including new faces.

“I saw some people working in sketchbooks the other day that I know haven’t had a drawing class here and what was in their sketchbooks were amazing,” Close said. “I hope that they end up taking a class with us at some time.”

Overall, students say they love the club simply because it is a welcoming place for them to explore their talents. 

“I think I am just really impressed by how friendly everyone is,” An art club student said. “They are really happy to talk to each other, to share things.”