With dinosaur drawings, poetry workshops, and a plethora of Instagram posts, the Art Club hosted a fun-filled virtual Art Week from November 2nd to 8th.   

Even though the Webb community cannot gather in the art classroom or on Alamo lawn this semester, the Art Club showcased student talent during a virtual Art Café on their Instagram, @webbartclub. The posts included poetry, drawings, photography, and three-dimensional pieces.  

“With everything being online, getting participation is always really hard,” said Savanna Cespedes (‘22), Art Club secretary and treasurer. “Everyone has a lot going on with school, and things outside of school as well. In art classes, submitting to Art Café is an assignment, so we got a lot of submissions which was really exciting. There were also students who were submitting two or three times. Being able to showcase that art during Art Café was something that was really unique because there was a wide range of different mediums and grades.” 

Wyatt Andrews (‘21) is the Art Club co-president, so he posted photos to the Art Club Instagram and hosted one of the live virtual workshops.    

“I took on the job of posting all of the pictures for Art Café on the club Instagram,” said Wyatt. “It took a really long time and was a little stressful, but it was so amazing to see the turnout and seeing everyone’s work. We really wanted to emphasize the diversity, not just grade levels but mediums of art too.” 

The Art Club also facilitated more interactive events over Zoom. Art Club members hosted workshops on drawing dinosaurs, rhyming, dancing, and even making origami.  

“My event, which was drawing dinosaurs, was more appealing to faculty kids and people in that age range, and their parents,” said Wyatt. “We really tried to focus on which people would be interested in what. It really worked to our benefit. My meeting was a lot of faculty kids, but the official Art Club meeting where we played Scribbl.io was mostly students.”  

“I chose poetry for my workshop because I like helping people and participating in events, and a form of art I love to write is poetry, and it’s a secret talent of mine as well,” said Katie Arzate (‘23). “It’s what I’m good at so I thought, why not teach it?” 

During Art Week, the Art Club also advocated for Be An Arts Hero, a group that is campaigning for governmental economic relief for the arts sector.  

“Be An Arts Hero is a program that is giving money back to the arts,” said Savanna. “In the pandemic, there isn’t a lot of money going to the arts. We were trying to raise awareness.” 

Through Art Week, the Art Club hoped to support Webb artists and help Webbies get involved in art. 

“I find art to be a break from school,” said Savanna. “We have a lot going on and it is always super busy, so being able to take a break from the computer and focus on something that is really on the creative side, something that you don’t get to see a lot of in your daily life, is something that is really special.” 

“I think it’s important for everyone to be heard and get their art out there,” said Katie. “Especially for new students, Art Week really allowed more people to see what kind of people the new students were based on their art, and it lets people relate to each other through using art as a form of expressing themselves. It’s also nice seeing peers or people you haven’t met before liking the post that your art is featured on, as it shows appreciation of your skills.” 

Despite having to adapt to a virtual format, Art Week maintained the same community feeling as on–campus events. Students were able to see and appreciate their peers work or share their own, and the Art Club events connected students in a unique and creative way.