By Diana Perkins and Caroline Trewet

Artwork climbing the walls of the AHS art room has many art students in a fuss.   The lack of space has made it hard for students to work on projects.  “More people come in and [there’s] not enough storage.  [Our projects] get mixed with other classes,” said freshman Tatum Heath.  “I lost my project a few times.  You don’t get enough room to make it the best it can be.”  Less space in the art room has made it difficult for students to get work done. Heath described the space as cramped and crowded.

Junior Joey Nielsen feels the same way: “Bigger room would be cool. It’s pretty crowded with all the stuff everywhere.”  Nielsen said the size of the room doesn’t really affect her. But she notices art projects seem to be climbing the walls of the art room.  Nielsen sais, “More space on the walls would make it easier to hang projects.  I think it’d be cool if we could space the seats out more too.”

Has this problem just arisen?  According to art teacher Patricia Wiederien, the problem has been there from the day they moved in to the current high school building.  Wiederien said,  “The quality of work is in spite of the room, not because of the room.  It’s not fair to the students who can’t hang their work.”  The students don’t have as many options as they could. Wiederien said, “No storage space and we can’t have computers because the clay and drawing are all in the same room.”

Wiederien also explained when AHS was first built, the original intentions were to have two art rooms, one for drawing and painting, and another for ceramics.  However, when the economy “went south,” said Wiederien, the second art room was cut from the blueprints.  Wiederien’s idea is to blow out the north wall and expand the room to solve the space issue. “Apparently the school board was discussing it.  There was an article in the paper.”  No other word has been heard about the expansion of the art room from the school board.