Every year, the National Art Honors Society hosts a night where they celebrate the hard work of FHC artists in every facet of creation. This year’s annual Fine Arts Festival will be Friday, March 31 in the cafeteria. The festival gives students a chance to showcase their art and perform for the attendees. It is also free to all who attend, but there will be artwork for sale and donations will be accepted. The festival has become annual thanks to its founder Ms. Switzer and the current sponsor, Ms. Allen. Students in National Art Honor Society and teachers will be working during the event, and the invitation is open to anyone who wants to come join in on the festivities.

“This is the fifth year doing the fine arts festival. Five years ago, Ms. Switzer ran the first one. She was the sponsor for national art honor society, and then I’ve taken it over since I’ve been teaching here for 4 years,” Ms. Allen said.

Katie Lloyd, a member of National Art Honor Society, has been working on the festival this year and helped with it last year.

“It’s really just a cluster of all the art and pieces that the students in multiple art classes make. It could come from sculpture, drawing one or two, painting, AP Studio, and we display them around, and have activities for the kids and parents to do to experience the fun of art,” Lloyd said.

Ms. Allen sees it as a night to showcase our school’s artistic talent.

“You can come in and create with the visual artists. The teachers will have art activities: painting, drawing, sculpting, etc. We have choir singing there, band is performing, and then same thing from the drama department,” Ms. Allen said.

The night is not one that can be thrown together with little preparation. It takes many students who dedicate their time to preparing for the Festival.

“The members of NAHS sign up for different areas or set ups of the Fine arts festival, like some will set up the whole thing, some will participate in it, volunteer to help run it. Also we have people putting down all the things afterwards,” Lloyd said.

The Fine Arts Festival has been a huge success in the past and is free to anyone who wishes to attend, but NAHS does not do any fundraising in preparation for it, as they can put it on at a very low cost.

“In the end, it doesn’t cost anything beside the little food we buy, but to set it up, my national art honor society students, they set up the show. We use what we have here already, so it doesn’t cost too much money to set it up,” Ms. Allen said, “We buy a little food, and we take donations. It’s really just to showcase all our artists at our school. We just have little things for sale here and there and little pans for people to donate.”

The work the students put into preparing this night, Ms. Allen thinks is a good experience, especially for those who will have more opportunities to showcase art in the future.

“It gives them experience for setting up an art show, so they are able to set up and transform the cafeteria into a gallery space. It is totally student run,” Ms. Allen said.

Ms. Allen and the members of NAHS look forward to the night dedicated to talented students at FHC. Lloyd encourages all to join in the fun and experience art.

“Come and get inspired. It’s always fun to create something.”