After school, Columbus High School artists come together to make art for a change.
Mrs. Brand, CHS’s Art teacher, is in charge of the Art Club, and she is very excited for this new year. The Art Club is enormous this year with 127 members!
Each month, the Art Club does an art activity and an optional community service project.
“I love seeing our students’ creativity making a difference in our school, city, and even nationally,” Brand exclaimed.
The Art Club will be creating an installation outside Columbus High and then moving it to the National Infantry Museum for Memorial Day. The “Resilience” project is made up of red poppies that were created out of clay. The Art students have created over 300 poppies.
“The red poppy is a symbol used from WWI to honor the veterans. People used to wear red poppy flower buttons. For the centennial of the end of WWI the Tower of London was covered in over 88,000 red poppies by an artist,” Brand explained.
The opening ceremony for the installation will take place on November 10, 2021, at CHS, where a poem will be read and photos taken.
“I just felt that we have so many wonderful military connections here that I wanted to honor them in some way,” Brand acknowledged.
Along with the “Resilience” project, Brand is most excited for the altered book project that the Art Club is doing in November. Members will create sculptures out of the books.
“We were able to get books donated by other schools that are no longer in use,” Brand explained.
Overall, Brand is very excited for this school year and is excited to see student’s art creations.
“Our motto for Art Club is ‘Let’s make art for a change,’” Brand went on, “‘ We are hoping to bring hope and encouragement to our students and community.’”