Tiffany Jacobs says she’s always enjoyed art, and she decided to provide students at Sweet Home Junior High a chance to explore the creative process – and experience benefits that come with that.
Jacobs, a counselor at the school, decided to start an after-school Art Club.
Her goal, she said, was to make art fun.
“Sharing my love of art with students filled a niche that I saw missing in our school’s extracurricular activities,” she said, adding that the club aims to “foster creativity, confidence, and community.”
“I saw that there were kids that needed a connection in our school, and so I enjoy art myself and knew that a lot of our students would as well,” Jacobs said.
They came and they have.
She said she has about half a dozen, nearly all seventh-graders, who have spent the last six months learning about art and building relationships within the club, which meets once a week.
Last week they held an exhibition of their work at the school, which drew visits from parents and teachers and friends.
Leiden Clarke, who participated in the club when he wasn’t competing in sports – football, wrestling and track, said he’s always liked to draw and “I like to create and I wanted to see how good I could be at doing this stuff.”
Erik Piestch, another seventh-grader, said he’s always liked sculpture. One of his creations in the exhibit was a castle.
“I’ve been missing with clay since I was 6, 7 years old,” he said. He is particularly interested in military history and some of his work reflects those themes.
“I typically do historical conflict,” Erik said. “Everything from naval to, rarely, modern-day.”
He said he likes depicting battle scenes, particularly – “like 1066 (the Battle of Hastings), D-Day landings, just all kinds.”.
Orion Jayne said he joined Art Club “to figure out what my limits are with art, and I learned that I have no limits.”
He said the club has given him a chance to experiment “with my creativity.”
“I create quite a bit of stuff,” he said. “I’ve done clay art. I’ve done coloring pencils art and paint art.”
Sharai Heath said she has an “overactive imagination,” so she decided to join the club.
She said she likes working with pencils.
“I’m trying to improve because I don’t want to have the same style for a long time,” she said.
Jacobs said the club focuses on process over “perfection.”
She said she aims to provide a “relaxing, inclusive space” to do art “outside of a graded classroom.”
Students have the opportunity to build skills such as “planning, communication, distress tolerance and teamwork.”
“By focusing on process over product, the club offers a unique, low-stakes environment where students can experiment with various mediums, relieve stress, build meaningful friendships, and embrace their unique creative voices,” she said.
“A lot of us do different things,” Erik said.