The art classrooms at South fall quiet as young students work intently on their paper crafts, cutting shapes and carefully coloring pages at the Arts in the Community Workshop. The event gave Glenview children, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade, the opportunity to expand their creative and artistic horizons, and have fun, Stephanie Fuja, Fine and Visual Arts Teacher and Arts in the Community Workshop
Sponsor said.

The Arts in the Community Workshop occurred in the fine arts hallway from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 11 with over 100 students in attendance lead by National Art Honors Society (NAHS), Fuja said. The workshop gave students interested in art an opportunity to build and develop their artistic skills, Fuja said.

“It’s a good feeder program to get students interested in doing something art-related and get an idea of what it could be like to take an art class in the future,” Fuja said.

The workshop gave students free range to paint, draw, and express themselves with the materials that they were given, beyond the restraints of a normal art class, junior Caroline Lato, NAHS Treasurer said. Children were given markers, paint, paper, canvases, and direction from teachers and students running the workshop to ensure and broaden their artistic success
and opportunities, Lato said. Students were able to portray themselves as they pleased with their own pa-
per craft creations, Lato said.

“A lot of kids don’t have this opportunity to play with the crafts or materials and us giving that to them is special,” Lato said.

The workshop consisted of three classes, separated by grades, with students in kindergarten and first grade making a turtle project; students in second and third grade building a water plant craft; and students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades creating a paper portrait of themselves, senior Briana Balan, NAHS Board Member said.

The young students are all aided by South students who are members of the NAHS, an organization that requires enrollment in an art class, maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher, devotion to character and service, and submitting a portfolio of all of the artwork they have done over the years, Balan said. At the workshop, board members ran the show, but it was open to all students from the society, Balan said.

South students taught the workshops by themselves, created the lesson plan, and obtained the materials, aiding the kids with full responsibility for the event, Balan said.

“What I really like about the workshop is it gives you a taste into teaching,” Balan said.