Revere High School’s Art Club hosts monthly meetings that involve students from all grade levels to interact with different people and use creativity in their projects.
During September’s meeting, members of the Art Club made slime. It was a very popular event with over 100 students in attendance. In the October meeting the students painted pumpkins and used their creative skills. In November the club hosted a thanksgiving dinner in honor of thanksgiving. The gingerbread house making is a student favorite. The attendance list is very high, it’s one of the most popular meetings all year.
The club is run by RHS art teacher Sarah Zustin since 2021. Since her arrival at RHS, she has played a vital role in organizing and running the Art Club meetings alongside the co-presidents, seniors Chloe Calgeras and Erin Shelby.
In December’s upcoming meeting, Art Club members will be making gingerbread houses. Zustin explained the significance of this event and why the club continues to bring it back each year.
“Hailey Hicks and Jane Torma were the presidents two years ago, and they said ‘We have done this in the past years, we want to try it out again’,” Zustin said.
The current co-presidents carry on this tradition after seeing the event first hand. Zustin talked about the holiday events the club holds.
“Usually with the fun holiday stuff you get more people, as in the pumpkin painting and gingerbread [houses]. We get a lot of kids in general but that is how I can gauge if the kids are really interested,” She said.
The increase in student participation during seasonal activities, such as pumpkin painting and gingerbread house making, serves as a reliable indicator of their interest in creative projects. Among these, gingerbread house making stands out as a particularly engaging activity, combining elements of holiday fun with artistic and tactile experiences.
“It’s good because it’s three dimensional, so that kind of gives students a taste in what we’re doing in 3D art. It’s also edible, which is a huge factor for the kids,” Zustin said.
The students enjoy being able to take home their houses and, in some cases, eat them during the process of construction. According to Shelby, because the houses are edible there are problems that arise.
“People struggle putting it together, and that’s what Chloe and I are there for,” Shelby said.
The process of constructing gingerbread houses often presents unexpected challenges for participants, requiring patience and problem-solving as Zustin explains.
“The frosting is a challenge. The kids don’t realize that it has to harden a little bit so they have to put the frosting on and hold it, and that can be tough because they want to get it done. I’ve had kids use hot glue guns instead, which is a nice alternative,” she said.
Zustin elaborated on the various ways in which students face challenges during the meeting, shedding light on the difficulties they encounter in staying organized and clean.
“I put butcher paper underneath and just worked smarter and not harder,” Zustin said.
Although the gingerbread house construction may be difficult for students and hard to keep under control, the students enjoy it, and there is a large number of people that attend this event according to last year’s records. Shelby recalled how the event has attracted students from different grade levels.
“We had middle schoolers even come to the meeting last year, so now those middle schoolers join us now as freshmen. We have lots of people come,” Shelby said.
Planning this event takes time, especially when there are a lot of students that attend. Zustin and the co-presidents are involved in a meeting to sort out various components for the meeting.
“We are helping Mrs. Zustin get supplies for the gingerbread houses. But sometimes, students bring in their own supplies or they will bring in five dollars,” Calogeras said.
The preparation for gingerbread house making involves organizing supplies and coordinating efforts, as described by Calogeras. She enjoys being co-president with Shelby, and she believes that nothing matters but creativity.
“Do it yourself. There’s no mistakes. It’s creative,” Calogeras said.
As the club continues to grow, events like gingerbread house making underscore its mission to combine fun, creativity and community, making it a cherished part of RHS’s culture.
