Credit to Jupiter Stephens

(FIle Photo)

The FHN art club was a club where students could express themselves and live out their passion for art after school hours. However, it has been shut down due to lack of students, staff, and time. Many FHN students who joined the art club early in their high school careers were saddened by its gradual decline and eventual closure.

“I immediately joined the art club when I got to high school,” junior Abby Hashieder said. “I was really sad when it got shut down, but I wasn’t surprised.”

By the end of last year, FHN’s art club was already struggling. The sponsor for the club, art teacher Denise Maples, was having an especially hard time keeping up with both the club’s after school activities and her work life. She was the only teacher who was up for thejob, but the hours kept piling up.

“I chose not to run the art club this year because I am working all seven hours at school,” Maples said. “I do department chair duties, I also have a second job that I work and I just felt like I just didn’t have the time to dedicate more of my life to art. I was really hoping we could find someone else to do it.”

As if Maples wasn’t under enough stress already, another problem arose: the number of students signing up for the art club started to decrease. Many students weren’t aware of the club, and some of the actual members only used the club as a hangout space instead of an art room.

“As the year went on, it seemed to dwindle down,” Maples said. “I was getting a lot of kids that really didn’t want to be in an art club, they were just looking for a place to hang out, so it got a little problematic. I didn’t quite have the involvement that I wanted.”

Though the art club is no longer standing, club members still have fond memories to reflect on. Every year, the club would go to Frenchtown to sell crafts, paintings, and other various creations they had made during their time in the club.

“It was honestly some of the most fun I’ve had in high school,” Hashieder said. “It was a really fun experience. I definitely miss it, but the shutdown was bound to happen. The teacher was busy and people weren’t aware that the art club existed so nobody was joining.”

Maples believes that with a little more financial help, the shutdown could have been prevented. There was no salary bonus for club sponsors, and Maples felt that charging an activity fee would disrupt the club’s inclusive environment.

“Maybe if there was a little more incentive as far as having some kind of compensation for being a sponsor, that might help,” Maples said.

Even with all the struggle, there is still hope for the art club to return. If staff and students put in the work, the art club can make a comeback and be even bigger and more involved than before.

“I hope that we continue to have an art club in the future and then maybe we find a way that gets art staff and students more invested in it,” Maples said. “Perhaps it is good for everybody to have more people who are involved.”