It is no secret that Choate is both an artistic and giving community. At this year’s Club Fair, students could sign up for long-time clubs Teach Music and Teach Wallingford, as well as ArtPod, an entirely new community service club created by sixth-formers Jeanne Malle ’19 and Josephine Hong ’19. (Malle is the Arts Editor of The Choate News.) ArtPod will focus on teaching the basics of art to elementary students from the Spanish Community of Wallingford, also known as SCOW.
Hong, co-president of ArtPod, highlights the importance of simple participation in the club. She said, “You don’t need to have a certain set of skills and you don’t need to be an artist, as long as you are willing to have fun with these kids and share a little art with them that they may not get otherwise.”
The club’s members will lead activities that are both fun and instructive. Some future plans include a Halloween candy wrapper project, a pasta project for National Pasta Day (on Wednesday, October 17), and card-making for the end-of-year holidays. Hong and Malle will also be teaching more difficult artistic concepts, such as abstractionism and pointillism, though admittedly in simplified forms. For instance, they will be painting pointillism style dots with Q-tips.
According to Hong, this club is purely a “passion project — a love project.” She stresses the importance of art in one’s life and the importance of art exposure at a young age. “It’s good for the mind and the spirit,” she says, “and we get to have some fun while we are at it.”
According to ArtPod’s founders, the success of their club will depend more on joy and enthusiasm than any technical skill. “We are not trying to get super technical with these kids,” Hong said. “I am just trying to share a piece of what’s important to me, and share the deeper appreciation that I had for the world as I started art, and share the beauty that can be in the human mind. I just want these kids to have fun!”
