Students often seek a creative outlet both in and out of their classes. Traditionally, art classes across schools have offered this type of outlet for passionate and curious students; however, sometimes this is circumvented by an outdated curriculum. With this in mind, the two new art teachers at MHS would love to see modern and personal trends incorporated into their curriculum.

Mr. McHugh, the ceramics, sculpture, and painting teacher, who is a first-year teacher at MHS, said, “Students can use ideas from almost whatever they want as long as it ties into the [state] requirements, [which are in a nutshell]: Comprehend, Reflect, Create, and Transfer.”

Mrs. Brown the Beginning Ceramics, Beginning Digital Photography, and Beginning Graphic Design teacher, agreed with him saying “I think that if you like what you’re doing, you’re going to want to put an effort into it”. She had a similar opinion, saying “Students have more buy-in when it[‘s] something more important to them”.  As long as the projects teach these requirements, the teachers “have a pretty good amount of leeway when it comes to art and teaching in high school”, says Mrs. Brown.

But Mr. McHugh also admits that in some cases modern art trends have minimal relevance to certain classes like ceramics, saying “even though modern trends in the art can influence what the art is about, most of the processes of creating ceramic arts have remained similar [throughout the history of the medium]”.

Some classes also, by their very nature, incorporate modern trends into their curriculum like digital photography and graphic design.  

One such trend is Inktober, where “Every October, artists all over the world take on the Inktober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month”. Isabella Erickson, who first heard about the challenge two years ago, decided this year that she would try it herself.

“It would be amazing if Inktober was somehow integrated into MHS art curriculum,” said Isabella Erickson.