Students use creative skills to impact their community

Community service is often seen as something boring, a required duty that every student must perform in order to graduate. Every Thursday, however, some of the most talented students McCallum has to offer gather at lunch to combine both community service and their life calling.

“Arts Society is an organization of students who are passionate about art, not just visual arts majors, who come together to talk about art and unify our artistic community through projects that benefit the school and the general Austin artistic community,” junior officer Emma Ryan said.

The National Art Honor Society is much like National Honor Society, except that it focuses on the visual arts. According to its parent group, the National Arts Education association, the purpose of the society is “to inspire and recognize students who have shown outstanding abilities in art,” and it “strives to support members in their goal of attaining the highest standards in art areas, and to bring visual arts education to the attention of the school and community.”

Students are given options to explore and take advantage of all that the artistic opportunities Austin has to offer.

“Last year I went to EAST [or East Austin Studio Tour] with a group of Arts Society students,” senior officer Clarissa Thompson said. “We just went around, and we talked with local artists. We looked at a lot of really great art, and it was so much fun.”

There’s a myriad of opportunities for members to expand their portfolios and gain experience as artists.

“We’ve held gallery openings within the school, using student art,” Ryan said. “Last year, we did a project where we did this big chalk drawing in front of the sidewalk of a public library; we’ve worked with local artists to help support their own projects: an upcoming project we are going to do is with a local artist; she’s doing an installation in some park, and we’ve helped her make a bunch of these origami balloon things that she’s going to use, and we’re going to help her install them.”

In addition to studying art all around the city, Ryan said that the NAHS also brings art to the school campus.

“This year we did the Dia de los Muertos altar out in the front hallway, where students from all over the school could bring pictures of people who have passed.”

This Dia de los Muertos altar is not just the most recent school installment of the Arts Society; it’s also one of art teacher and co-sponsor of the Arts Society Jeff Seckar-Martinez’s favorite works by his students.

“I really had fun building the altar,” Seckar-Martinez said. “I like any time that people come together and get really excited about something, so it’s always nice to see students in a different context, where they’re not thinking about grades, and they’re not thinking about meeting deadlines. It’s more about having fun and doing something to have a common cause.”

The National Art Honor Society builds a community of artists within a school by having them collaborate on art-related public service.

“It makes you more aware of the artistic community in Austin,” Ryan said. “If you’re interested in art, it can be really easy to isolate yourself. [Art]’s something you do on your own. It’s not like theater, where you’re forced to work with others, so it opens you up to this whole community, not only at McCallum, but within Austin.”

Attending meetings doesn’t require a huge commitment; participation is up to each individual member.

“There’s a good amount of people inside the art room, and we have a giant gavel,” junior officer Liv Young said. “Everyone gets quiet, and we discuss what’s happening and what you can do and how you can participate in community hours.”

The organization has gained momentum, mostly due to the change in leadership, according to many of its officers.

“We became a lot more active, because Mr. Martinez came in and got it a lot more structured,” Thompson said. “It was a lot more casual before, and we have a lot more opportunities right now.”

Martinez, now in his second year of leading the honors society, strongly believes in the importance of having a gathering place for artists within the school.

“I really like that it builds a sense of community within the student body,” Seckar-Martinez said. “I have students that are diverse and part of every life, and they all come together and meet, and art seems to be the common bond that everybody works around.”