After a long day of school, the cafeteria is full of students eager to create slime. Art Club members find their friends at each of the tables with their materials for the slime. Art Club has never seen the number of attendance members rise up to a hundred.
In previous years, the average attendance at Art Club was fifteen. Over fifty students have attended each Art Club meeting this year. Art Club helps with events such as Homecoming, Winter Formal, and Boo at the School. This year Art Club started off with a slime themed meeting, then progressed to making signs for homecoming.
Since moving to the high school in 2021, Sarah Zustin adopted the Art Club. During the first meeting, Zustin was surprised with the number of students in attendance.
“I think because we advertised that we were making slime, a lot of kids were excited to do that. We had between 90 and 100 kids,” Zustin said.
Chloe Calogeras, Co-President of the Art Club, is responsible for coming up with possible meeting ideas. The members creating slime was originally Calogeras’ idea.
“It was a little stressful, but it was fun. It was so big that we had to move to the cafeteria,” Calogeras said.
Erin Shelby is the other Co-President of the Art Club, elected to her position last year. Shelby is in charge of understanding and certifying the volunteer hours which are given out during certain Art Club meetings.
“It was a big thing to fill out volunteer sheets. That is how we check hours,” Shelby said.
Volunteer hours are an added bonus that Art Club offers as well as creating art.
“Anything we do that’s community-based or helping out another group, I usually provide hours,” Zustin said.
Thursday October 24th, Art Club will support Revere’s Boo at the School for elementary school students, which offers a chance at volunteer hours for club members.
“We set up the classrooms and make it Halloween-themed. Then [Art Club] students face paint,” Zustin said.
Shelby believes that the incoming freshmen are a large factor in the spike of Art Club membership, the 2028 class having the largest student population in the school. The club held a booth at FroshFest in which students could talk to the members and learn more about its activities.
“We sent out a lot of emails. We had a lot of freshmen sign up and a lot of freshmen come to the slime meeting,” Shelby said.
Calogeras finds that the Art Club gains attendance for more reasons than simply creating crafts.
“My favorite is the overall environment and seeing people. It’s kind of a bonding moment for everyone. Some kids who go there are not that good at art, but they are there to have fun,” Calogeras said.
For the past three years, Zustin supports each member, mentoring many students and making it a goal to help each student to bring out their artistic ability.
“I love Ms. Zustin. She is always there encouraging us. She always has positive things to say. She always knows exactly what to do,” Shelby said.
Calogeras and Shelby are in communication with Ms. Zustin in preparation for the next Art Club meeting.
“For Halloween, everyone brings in their own pumpkin and then we paint them. You just bring in $5 and then Ms. Zustin goes out and buys a bunch,” Shelby said.
Art Club’s next official meeting will take place the week before Halloween. Zustin and Art Club representatives are always looking for more members to join the club. If you are worried about your artistic ability being shamed upon at Art Club, don’t worry none is required.
