BY ERIN FORD, NATALIE BLISS & LIZZY SEVERE
South’s Art Club received news last week that the school district came across a rule that was not put in place until this year that prohibits teachers from leaving the state with students on a school day. More specifically, this puts an end to the club’s plans on leaving April 20 and, in turn, has stopped what the club’s leaders considered a new tradition they wanted to continue.
“Art Club was scheduled to leave this coming Friday at 6:00a.m. and drive four hours to visit the Crystal Bridges art museum in Bentonville, Ark,” Daniel Gegen, art, said, “We were going to be taken on a tour of the museum like we did last year and then we would be given lunch, which was provided by them. Now, if we go on April 27th, the activities planned will have to change and we have a self-guided tour instead.”
After the club’s first trip on April 14, 2017, the club not only grew in size but saw a large improvement of group representation according to the sponsors and members alike.
“This field trip has promoted outside people into Art Club and it educates students about different art works,” Haleigh Grote, 11, said, “People see the benefits of art and how cool it is as well as the students get to see things they would normally not see.”
Members that went on the trip last year can remember their specific experiences and things that made the trip unique compared to other school trips.
“My favorite thing was the outdoor section they had with a bunch of different pathways,” Mark Ahlman, 11, said.
With news coming at such short notice, Gegen has to rearrange plans put in place prior to the change and push the transportation and other necessities back to a new date. The new date, which is still being confirmed by the school district, is April 27.
“The school district was in a meeting on April 16 to discuss this Arkansas field trip,” Gegen said, “It is almost certain that the students and I will be going on April 27.”
The members that have already signed up to go on the original date now have to reconsider the trip and possibly decide not to go because of the complications. Avid members who have been in art club since the beginning are disappointed to see the new tradition potentially be terminated.
“This is my second year being a part of Art Club because I was not at South my freshman year so I have been in Art Club for two years,” Kyara Wondra, 12, said.
New members who have never experienced the trip are unsure of the plans, but are excited to see what the tradition holds. The possibility of the date change has caused many new members to question what the plan is.
“I was looking forward to everything about this field trip and getting to hang out with people,” Lauren Christian, 9, said.
Jakeb Wilks, 9, worked on his painting project for art class. Wilks has been working on this piece for the past two weeks. Photo by K. Fisher