In September, the art room transformed from a classroom into a workshop. Students huddled around cutting cardboard, folding paper, and spray-painting Hollywood-themed decorations while trading ideas to make the Oct. 4 Homecoming dance feel like a red-carpet event.

The West Chicago Art Club prepared for the Homecoming dance for several weeks leading up to the main event. The sounds of scissors cutting through cardboard mixed with conversations about how to make the decorations more magical, filling the art room with energy each Tuesday.

This year’s Homecoming theme, “WEGO Goes to Hollywood”, conjured images of red carpets, films, and celebrities galore. Many of the high school’s clubs took part in creating decorations to hang throughout the hallway the week of the dance. Art Club already has ideas and projects in motion, and members said they were excited to create an atmosphere that reflected the Hollywood theme.

“Art club has always helped out student council make some decorations. They do buy stuff, but we help out making things from the supplies we have, “ Art Club Sponsor, Megan Dulkinys said.

Art Club includes students from all grades, from freshmen to seniors, each bringing creativity and a willingness to contribute.

“I just like how I’m helping out for Homecoming, because I’ve heard that Homecoming is a big special thing about high school,” freshman Aiden Gruenwald said.

Art Club did not just jump into drawing and cutting. Members began with brainstorming at their first meetings and then put their ideas into motion over the following weeks leading to the big homecoming dance.

Junior, Kim Nguyen, was one of the students who worked on film reels. To make them, students traced a template and cut out the reels from cardboard.

“I really like working with other people in art club, making the homecoming decorations, and basically continuing to contribute to the school spirit,” Nguyen said.

To ensure decorations looked their best, students used spray paint to coat the film reel pieces.

With more cardboard, students began drawing the shape of a person to create life-sized Oscars– awards given out to Oscar winners. The figures were painted and detailed throughout the process.

“Oscars are Hollywood awards given for different categories in movies,” Dulkinys said.

Because the hallway is already filled with trophies and photos of WEGO athletes, Art Club members had to use their creativity in the limited space available.

“What will make the biggest impact for the space that we have, right?” Dulkinys said.

Students used the resources provided in the art room to create origami stars that would be hung from the ceiling of the hallway for the dance.

For many students, joining Art Club was a way to make connections while doing something they loved. Many also do it for the additional opportunities that the art clubs give outside of school, such as glass painting for Mexican independence.

“I didn’t really know a lot of people in middle or elementary school,” junior Alina Thorson said. “So in order to make myself feel welcome in an environment that I wasn’t very comfortable with, I started doing a lot of art because it was something that made me comfortable and welcomed.” 

Art Club’s welcoming atmosphere resonates with students across WEGO, including freshman Andrea Garcia, who said she had the opportunity to participate in glass painting for Mexican Independence Day.

“I was able to make up a design. I used the papel picado for two of the windows. For the main window, I did the agila  [ in the center of the Mexican flag],” Garcia said. “Since they had the colors available. I was able to show how you can see the paper all cut off, and it was really nice to work on it. And because I wasn’t alone, I was with my mom, who also knows about more Mexican stuff than I do, it was really fun.”