The scratching of pencils, the sound of paint brushes dunking into water, and many more artistic sounds fill the air as members of National Art Honors Society gather for their monthly meeting.
You may not have heard about this honors society, but that is because it is new to LHS this year. Art teachers Michelle Dyson and Kelly Halstead have worked together to bring the National Art Honors Society to Lancer Nation.
“Mrs. Halstead and I had been looking at [starting NAHS] for a couple of years, but it always seemed overwhelming,” Dyson said. “This year, I stuck my head into her classroom and went, ‘we’re doing it. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we’re gonna do it.’ As long as we put our heads together, we can usually make just about anything happen.”
The two of them did just that. This honor society now meets every third Tuesday of the month for about an hour. They hope to bring more awareness of the art program here at LHS and all of its many art classes. According to Dyson, they would also like to promote students working together to share their art while “making an impact on the culture and mindfulness of the students and staff.”
“We will be bringing awareness of the positive impact the arts have on mindfulness and the environment, how art is all around us, how art tells a story, and that art is a way to represent a moment in time,” Dyson said. “We want to bring more visible art to the building.”
While Dyson does want to bring more art to the school, what she wants most is to bring kids of similar interests together and give students who are “dedicated to the arts a place to be represented.”
“We want it to feel like a welcoming community for the kids who are involved,” Dyson said. “We want them to be able to do something different than what they would be doing in an art class.
One of these students is junior Samatha Gagne. According to Gagne, participating in the experiences provided by NAHS will “expand her creativity and artistic abilities in the long run.” Every meeting, she gets artistic freedom to do whatever she wants.
“My favorite thing about this society is how laid back it is,” Gagne said. “Art has always been something I have done to enjoy and relax, and this honors society is a good representation of that. It’s a nice space for people who love art to collaborate and work hard without too much pressure.”
This year, the club has participated in a few activities, like decorating doors for Christmas and making cards for people.
“We did random acts of kindness, and we made cards for teachers,” Dyson said. “We wanted it to be teachers who maybe they thought didn’t get recognized, because there are so many amazing teachers in the building, we just wanted people to know we see them.”
Currently, NAHS wants to create temporary murals in the building, something big that will catch people’s attention while walking through the school.
“We want to do anything that will bring attention to what’s happening within the art world in general and the classes that we’re teaching,” Dyson said.
Senior Evie Berry, a student in one of these art classes, is also a member of this honors society. She knows firsthand what it takes to become a member.
“My best advice is to buckle down and work as hard as you can,” Berry said. “You don’t need to be perfect at art to get in, I’m actually relatively bad at art, but I put in so much after class/school time and effort that I was able to get in. If anyone who wants to get in does the same, then they should be able to achieve that.”
There is another part of NAHS that is really important to the members.
“We do stuff to make people smile and to help out the school with small acts and such, and I also get to build better relationships with the people there,” Berry said.
NAHS also offers its members many scholarship opportunities. Students’ artwork is shown through contests sponsored by NAHS, where students may receive national awards. Their artwork also has the chance of being published nationally in NAHS.
“Anyone who wants to go into a career in the arts, the more that you can put yourself out there and just get used to having your art out in the world and either getting accepted or dealing with rejection, it just makes you a stronger artist,” Dyson said.
