Art Club at William Jewell College has had a bit of a stall the last few years, mainly due to COVID-19, but 2022-23 president Claire Henry, a senior digital media communications major, wants to increase engagement. This year she hopes to cater more to the ‘art’ aspect of the club.
“Art Club didn’t have as much of a presence on campus purely because we were coming out of a really intensive pandemic,” Henry said. “COVID-19 quarantine and social guidelines made it very hard to meet frequently, which is something I know a lot of clubs are dealing with this year.”
Although Henry has not been in the art club cabinet, she has been extensively involved with the general art community at Jewell and the creative activity as a hobby and profession over the past few years.
“I was reached out to by the previous cabinet and they asked if I’d like to run,” Henry said. “I thought it would be a great opportunity especially in regards to what I want to go into professionally, so I said ‘yes.’”
As a digital media communications major, Henry dedicated her career to graphic design and illustration. However, it was unforeseen as she preferred sculpting in high school.
“I was very sculpture-focused when I was in high school, but I knew that I wanted to go into digital art,” Henry said. “Digital art was something I was pretty unfamiliar with at first. I started practicing graphic design in Adobe Illustrator and I just fell in love with it. Now I’m designing pretty much every day. I don’t think there’s any other career that I’d ever be interested in.“
Now comfortable with her choice in career, Henry said she wants to share her knowledge and help out others in regards to art as a whole.
“My main goal is to [better] establish Art Club on campus and try to make sure that it has more of a presence,” Henry said. “This year, we are going to focus more on the artists that work in the Stocksdale Gallery. The art club will be responsible for greeting them, helping them display their artwork and going to the exhibition openings.”
Art Club is scheduled to meet every Wednesday evening from 6 to 8 p.m., with the first open meeting being Sept. 21. Henry invites and welcomes all students to share their feedback and suggestions.
“We’re going to talk about everybody’s wants and needs with the art club,” Henry said. “Since we do have a budget, we’re going to talk about what kind of materials people want to see and what projects people want to work on. I think that we’re going to try to have some rolling projects, too, so that not every week is a new project. Hopefully, we’ll be able to reflect what our members want out of our club. I want to encourage anyone who is interested in any type of visual arts to come check out the club.”
This year’s cabinet consists of Henry, the president; Vice President Garrett Washington, a sophomore theatre major; Treasurer Sarah Coupland, a senior theatre major; and Secretary Marquis William, a musical theatre major.