After seeing members dwindle away last year, the officers of ArtReach are determined to increase membership and keep members. Dedicated to crafts and service, ArtReach holds bi-weekly meetings for members to make crafts, such as paper lanterns and birds. Some of these crafts are donated to organizations such as Sunday Friends, which is a nonprofit organization that looks to lessen the effects of poverty. Before last year, the club went by the name “MV Stars” and made crafts purely for recreational purposes. However, the club has since changed its name to ArtReach and extended its mission statement to using its crafts to benefit the community.An ArtReach member folds paper in order to make origami. At their first meeting, ArtReach officers explained that making origami art involves no cutting, but rather folding of paper. Photo by Dylan Tsai.
“The service element really started last year with donating to organizations,” said junior Shreya Parjan, co-president of ArtReach. “Now, we’re just making that little more of a formal process by keeping track of how much our members are contributing.”
This year Artreach will be taking another step towards being a hybrid service club by awarding members service hours. Since the crafts donated to other organizations are service to the community, members will receive service hours for attending the lunch meetings to make them. Throughout the year, ArtReach also hopes to partner with other service clubs in order to provide even more volunteer opportunities.
Finished origami cranes. ArtReach often makes crafts to donate to organizations such as Sunday Friends, but these cranes were made for members to keep. Photo by Dylan Tsai.With these changes, ArtReach’s officers also want to make their club more well known. In addition to using service hours as an incentive for members to continue being active, co-president senior Steven Chung hopes to gain publicity by planning larger activities.
“We’re trying to expand our club,” said Chung. “Letting people know what ArtReach is.”
One idea for a larger club activity came from current junior and ArtReach treasurer Shivika Sivakumar. Sivakumar suggested a school-wide arts and crafts competition, so that the entire school could participate. While the details of the competition may take a few more months to finalize, Sivakumar hopes to eventually have monthly competitions, each with their own theme.
Though ArtReach will use these large events to gain publicity, Chung hopes that ArtReach will still maintain its communal feeling.
“[ArtReach] is a nice niche we’ve formed, where everyone who likes arts and crafts can come here,” Chung said. Junior and ArtReach treasurer Shivika Sivakumar makes origami cranes with a club member. ArtReach members made origami cranes during their first meeting. Photo by Dylan Tsai.
