The Art of Creativity

          Lake Hamilton stresses the four A’s: academics, athletics, arts, and atmosphere.  Of the four A’s mentioned art is the most important aspect of creativity in any school. There are different forms of art, actual art classes (painting, drawing, etc.), choir, theatre, band, or dance that entertains people daily. Lake Hamilton offers all of these activities for students to take part in.

When taking an art class at Lake Hamilton, students are given the opportunity by Mr. Smith, the art teacher, to join Art Club. To join, members pay dues of $20; that money gets the member a t-shirt and also helps pay for the trip to the Arkansas Arts Center. Members get out of school for a day to go to the Arkansas Arts Center, which is located in Little Rock, Arkansas in the historic MacArthur Park. The AAC offers fascinating exhibitions, live theatre and art classes along with the Museum Shop and Best Impressions Restaurant. Who wouldn’t want to skip a day of school just to go look at art? I don’t know about you, but I sure would!

How can art club benefit your future? Well, as Mr. Smith says, “It gives students a chance to experience the art community and go see artwork.” Along with that, it helps students gain an appreciation of the arts. It also gives you a chance to volunteer at different artistic functions; lets you get in touch with your creative side. An example of a function that I volunteered at while in art club would be the Hot Springs Film Festival. It was a lot of fun; I got to sit in the theatre, welcome people, and answer any questions visitors might ask. Art club members volunteer at the Hot Springs Film Festival every year. Another opportunity students are given when joining art club is members get to work on the Homecoming float and also walk along beside it, dressed according to the theme, in the parade. Walking along with the float shows that art club members have school spirit, we cheer on the football team, get them hyped up to win, and make younger students excited about the game, too.

This is my first year in art club, so I don’t know too much, but what I do know is that I have already had lots of fun. One major activity art club members are involved in is raising money for the Thea Foundation. The Thea Foundation buys art supplies for schools that don’t have enough money to do so. This is good because it gives schools that are in need of art supplies the chance to have some. Art supplies are key objects when it comes to art. If schools have art supplies, then students have what they need to express themselves.

Also, every year Lake Hamilton puts on an art show in the high school lobby. There is one showing here, at the school, and then students that have a piece entered go to competition. To have an art piece entered into the show, it has to reach Mr. Smith’s standards and expectations; usually, Art I classes don’t reach a high enough standard to be put into a show because they are not experienced enough quite yet. “The sixth annual LH art show will be mid-January,” says Mr. Smith; so, there’s something to look forward to this coming January. Any art from past art shows can be seen at LakeHamiltonArt.com. Being able to go to a website and see pieces from past art shows is a good way to see how much more work has been entered than past years, differences in the art, and how far students have come.

Art, altogether, is important because it gives a chance to express yourself in ways other than words. Art club gives students an opportunity to view beautiful and unique pieces done by talented artists; plus its loads of fun.

Nikki Haak