Gallery • 5 Photos

Ben Weber

Juniors Liliko Uchida and Matt White perform live music in the cafeteria during lunch.

Members of the National Art Honor Society helped to organize the first annual Art Week, which showcased both student artwork and musical performances throughout the building through the week of March 19.

March is Youth Art Month and NAHS wanted to celebrate by allowing students to express themselves in ways they normally wouldn’t, like with live painting, temporary tattoos, stickers, live musical performances and more.

“We wanted to try and think about how do we appreciate art, not by looking at actual artwork on a wall, but with other ways,” National Art Honor Society adviser and fine and performing arts teacher Michelle Sheppard said.

Throughout several hallways many different types of artwork were displayed, including paintings, photographs, graphic design, sculpture, and more.

Along with visual artwork displayed throughout Algonquin, some students performed live music, from guitar to acapella,  in the cafeteria during all three lunches. There were performances from juniors Matt White and Liliko Uchida, senior Ahren Shreeve, and the chamber choir.

“For the students that volunteered to do music during lunch, we tried to spread it around different styles and different people,” fine and performing arts department head Amy Collins said.

The fine and performing arts teachers came up with the idea for art week in a department meeting, but was mainly student driven after that.

“Once the teachers told us their idea, we came up with all the brainstorming to really make it happen,” senior and NAHS member Taylor Murphy said.

The goal for Art Week was to motivate students who are otherwise uninvolved in the arts at Algonquin to join clubs or take classes that are related to the arts. Some classes require no previous experience with the subject material, including a beginner guitar and piano class.

“We have a lot to offer at this school for students to find their creative side,” Collins said. “I’m really proud that we recently started some new music classes that anyone in the school can take.”

NAHS plans to hold the art week next year as well, and is willing to expand the events to inspire as many students as possible to get involved in the arts. The experience was enjoyable for the visual artists, musicians and students who partook in the variety of activities.

“I had a blast,” senior and NAHS member Genevieve Cox said. “This is what I do for fun. This is what I love, and this what I want to do, so I want to say it was like a dream come true being able to paint instead of going to class…it was such a loving presence that I got to feel and I think a lot of the artists there got to feel too.”