Middle school students are occupied as ever, but the recently formed art club allows students to be creative, spend time with friends, and have fun every week.

After each tough week of middle school, students widely agree that having time to wind down and enjoy is a must. This spare time has taken the form of student-run middle school clubs. One of these clubs, the Art Club- sometimes grouped together with the Photography Club to form the (cleverly named) Art and Photography Club, is focused on allowing its members to express their artistic potential and have fun with their friends. The Art Club is led by Mimi Wood ‘26, and represented by Ms. Amanda Lea.

“I think it’s ended up a little different [than I imagined when founding the club],” says Wood ‘26, Art Club President and Founder. “It’s much more social based than art based right now. I think that something I might want to change, but on the other hand, I like the social aspect of it because everyone gets to talk to each other while they’re drawing and I think it’s a good medium.”

Wood ‘26 reflects on why she decided to start the club, “I think I really wanted a club where, a) I could do something with my friends and b) also do something I would enjoy and that everyone else would enjoy.” The club’s members feature many different personality types, but each of them share a love for art. “Recently, I’ve found that art is a common factor in many of my friendships, and that it can be easy to talk, draw, and bond with people at the same time.”

Each club has a specific but relaxed itinerary, explained by the club president, “For starters, at the beginning of the semester I sent out a Google Doc, where you can make suggestions. We take one suggestion from that, I announce the prompt at the start of the meeting, and the members have the entire club time to work on the prompt and create a drawing based off of it.” Wood ‘26 ensures that any suggestions from the members are listened to and respected, and that everyone can do something they enjoy.

“I think the members are learning, since this is such an open space, I’m challenging them to be creative and focus their efforts on something productive,” remarks Wood ‘26. Members are encouraged to learn something, be it about art, time management, creativity, or anything else that they could use in school or life in the club. “Another thing that they’re learning is how you can fit so much time into a single drawing.”

Until the end of the school year, the club president has a general idea of what the future has in store for members, “For the future of the club, I think I would like to branch out into other mediums. I’m not sure how I’m going to get about that, but that’s definitely something on my mind.” While all of the club’s art has been focused on paper, some weekly prompts have included using colored markers exclusively or drawing without erasing.

The Art Club, along with each of the other middle school clubs, meets on Fridays after lunch. Ms. Amanda Lea, Barstow’s new MS and US art teacher, is the faculty representative of this club, and meetings are held in her room, room 207.