Homecoming buttons, murals around the school and community, props and backdrops for the Band, Musical and Play, staff appreciation mugs, and the annual Blood Drive, all events, activities and projects the Art Club is involved in, over the course of the average school year. Despite all of this, and despite the fact that Art Club has been part of Benton for most of the District’s existence, there are still constant questions as to what exactly the Art Club does, so let’s clear that up.
As mentioned, Art Club has been part of Benton since the beginning. It has been a place where students have been able to be exposed to additional material and processes, that there isn’t always time for, during the school day/ course. Beyond the extra experiences with these materials, Art Club is also constantly creating artwork for a variety of purposes. The year always starts pretty hectic with the design, fabrication and selling of several hundred Homecoming buttons each year. The Club members are responsible for coming up with the concepts, and putting each button together. Luckily over the years some small tools/ equipment have been purchased to make this job *slightly* easier, but it is still a very labor intensive process. It is also the activity that both the Art Club students, as well as many other students in the District (Especially the Elementary kids) really look forward to. The Club members get excited about the prospect that others will be wearing their design, and the students that buy them, enjoy showing off those designs.
The Fall is also the time where Art Club has helped support some of the other activities via props and backdrops for both Marching Band and the Fall Musical. For several years, Art Club painted four, large backdrops for the Marching Band to use as part of their performance. The students would come up with some concepts, based on the Band’s theme for the year, and those concepts would be approved by the Band, before starting. Once again this was a great way for the students to see their work shown publicly, as well as to promote inter-department/ activity collaboration. The same is true for the work we’ve done with the Fall Musical as well, though the created work(s) are more subdued as part of the set and props.
Art Club then finishes up the Fall with our Annual Blood Drive through LifeServe Blood Center. This event is something that Art Club and FCCLA have been co-sponsoring since 2012. Art Club helps out by creating media to promote the drive as well as sign up potential donors. The Drives have been a great success and a great benefit to the local community, and it is something Art Club looks forward to every year.
Lastly, there are the projects and activities that vary depending on the year, and what requests we have from other Departments in the school, or from community members. As mentioned we have done murals around the community, one on the Keystone Library and one in the Keystone Care Center’s new Physical Therapy room. There have also been some recent requests from some community members in both Van Horne and Blairstown for some mural projects as well. Beyond that the Club has undertaken other tasks/ projects, like making all staff ceramic mugs, and contributing items to the “Empty Bowls” fundraiser at the Marion Arts Festival.
So while they tend to work “quietly” behind the scenes, Art Club continues to help promote the Arts, as well as other activities/ departments and the school district, throughout the year, with a firm belief in the saying, “The Earth without Art is just ‘Eh’”.
