Westford Academy requires that every student take one semester of a visual performing arts (VPA) class in order to fulfill their graduation requirements. For some students, the course is just another obligation in their schedule that comes and goes within the span of five months. For other students, the course is a necessary respite from the consistently strenuous and rigid work of other classes.
The WA National Art Honor Society (NAHS) has been reestablished after 10 years due to renewed interest as a way for students to involve themselves in community service through art-based projects and volunteering. The honor society meets every other Wednesday at 2-3 pm in room 115 and requires students to fill out an application, be enrolled in an art class at WA, and pay a $5 registration fee to join.
With more than 40 different science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) based courses offered during the 2023-2024 school year, the WA student body has an undeniable interest and diversity in science and math courses. However, with the sizable focus on classes that have a more strictly outlined curriculum, many students are left searching for an outlet to express themselves. The visual arts department has played a key role in allowing students to alleviate that stress through a more relaxed and individualistic curriculum and environment.
“I think that WA is a really academically focused school, and it’s always about being the best at everything and being very successful, which is a good thing,” senior Sachi Rasne said. “But I think for a lot of students, the art department is the one place that they can go where it’s not about being the best. It’s just about having fun and expressing yourself.”
Many of the more niche classes such as Painting provided students with opportunities to interact with new mediums and explore their creative interests. This is why students looking forward to those classes were dealt a huge blow when these courses were cut due to budget constraints for the 2024-25 school year.
Additionally, while WA’s Art Club allows students to explore their interest in art outside of the department’s classes, many students were also looking for opportunities to benefit the community with their work. All these factors converged when Rasne came across another school’s Instagram post advertising their National Art Honor Society in spring of 2024.
“Just seeing how passionate people around [WA] are about art was the inspiration to start the program,” Rasne said. “There’s so many artists who do art on their own, and they’re super good at it, but they don’t really have a way to share it with the community […] and so I thought that that would be really nice to have.”
Redeveloping an art society had an especially significant draw for Rasne due to her involvement in the art department through all four of her years at WA.
“I always knew that I wanted to take AP art going into high school, so my freshman year I took Foundations [of Art], and then my sophomore year I took Studio Art, and then my junior year I took Advanced Art Honors, and now I’m in AP Art and Design” Rasne said. “It’s been really fun to not only see myself grow as an artist, but to see my classmates grow because in art you’re with a lot of the same people for multiple years.”
After talking with art teacher and current NAHS advisor Ed Hardy about the possibility of bringing NAHS back to WA, senior Rebecca Ward also expressed interest in running the honors society. Ward has been similarly engaged with the WA art department throughout her high school career, taking courses throughout her four years to remain involved in the community and her passion for art.
Even before the honors society was fully organized, Rasne and Ward knew that their main goals were to foster the positive environment already established in the WA art community, while encouraging more students to use their passion for art to benefit the community.
“We thought it would be a good idea to have more resources for people to get involved in the arts community in Westford, especially after the budget cuts hit the visual arts department a lot,” Ward said. “For me and Sachi, we knew we wanted a way to get involved and […] we thought that Westford had such a great visual arts department [and wondered] ‘What’s stopping us from having something like that where people can get together and help the community?'”
The importance of their goals kept Rasne and Ward motivated as they filled out a considerable amount of documentation and met a variety of other requirements necessary to set up an honor society. The process involved getting the approval of the deans and administration and also demonstrating that there was interest for the program, which they were able to gage with a Google Form in the spring of 2024.
After an initial burst of responses, the submissions of the form lulled a bit, causing concerns about attendance according to Rasne. However, with 23 students signing up to join after the first meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 2, those concerns were quickly dismissed.
The concept of NAHS was started by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) to provide recognition and scholarships to art students and to improve communities through their artwork. Through the Westford chapter, students can apply for scholarships through NAEA and members receive a cord and recognition at graduation like other national honor societies. Their biweekly meetings allow time for students to develop ideas for these scholarships as well as the time and materials to work on them.
In addition to offering scholarship opportunities, the honor society will be working on projects throughout the year aimed at brightening WA, the community of Westford, and nearby towns. Currently, members are working on canvas murals to hang around WA and potentially the middle and elementary schools as well.
Although the idea has not been approved yet, Ward has also been interested in adding murals to the fences around the picnic tables outside the cafeteria.
The work of NAHS will extend past the Westford community as members gather materials to donate to local art schools such as The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord. Local art schools like The Umbrella Arts Center and Refuge Art School in Lowell share with NAHS the goal of spreading the benefits of art to their communities. Collecting materials to donate and engaging in other forms of community service through local schools is a key part of the mission of NAHS.
“I think students, including me, often get carried away with our academic grades that we forget to set aside time for things we want to do,” junior Srishti Choudhury said. “NAHS provides positive space for me to enjoy doing artwork while also giving back to the community. I think it’s great that our school is emphasizing the importance of art in society through programs like these.”
Many students, including senior Héctor BermanSample, also attribute art for helping them focus academically.
“There are tons of categories of art and many applications in the real world, plus the creativity is good for the brain and creates a nice community,” BermanSample said. “Everyone is respectful and fun and it always feels like you can speak freely and be yourself. I met many friends through the art community too which makes my life amazing.”
Aside from academics, art classes and the visual arts community at WA have become a welcoming and open place for a variety of students to create new friendships and tap into an unrestricted well of creativity.
“One of my favorite things about art is that it celebrates creativity, and has no set rules. The WA art community has helped me embrace my creativity,” Choudhury said. “By trying new things and meeting new people, I’ve been able to understand myself better through art.”
