Tara Kraft paints a vibrant Art Club

The Art Club at Bellevue College gives students the opportunity to meet other students who are interested in art. Students have the opportunity to exchange their ideas and thoughts to improve their work.  The Art Club winter kick-off meeting will be held on Thurs, January 10 at 1:30 p.m. in C-154.

Club President Tara Kraft graduated from Duke University with a degree in Computer Science, but found her passion in fine arts at BC. According to Kraft, one of the club’s goals is inclusivity. Everyone is welcome to the club whether they are artists themselves or just interested in finding out more about art. As the club’s president, Kraft solicits ideas for activities members are interested in and member’s inputs and ideas are welcomed. “Since many students at Bellevue College study here for just a year or two, it can be hard to make those connections to people who share your interests in the shorter time period.  The art club takes chance out of that process,” said Kraft.

“I just got back from Australia …. I saw some amazing artwork while I was there, from rock art 20,000 years old and painted by the oldest continuous culture on Earth, to contemporary works dealing with the issues facing that culture today.  More than ever I’m convinced of art’s importance to our experience as human beings and how we relate to the world around us.  And I hope the Art Club can foster that in the students of Bellevue College,” added Kraft.

One of the club’s popular activities are the drawing slams. “We get together and everyone takes a turn either posing for the group, drawing on their own papers, or drawing on a shared, large-scale drawing.  We come up with little stories or characters for the people posing to play, which gives you an opportunity to practice drawing things you may not just find or say out on the streets.  At the end we all work on the shared drawing to make it a masterpiece,” said Kraft.

For future events, the club is planning to visit the Frye Museum’s Moment Magnitude exhibit which features artists in many fields who practice in Seattle. The club is also working to conduct more events such as a regular drawing slam with new ideas. Kraft added that she is currently working with the Associated Student Government Vice President of Student Affairs and Pluralism about doing a participatory mural for the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations.

Students can find out about more about the club’s upcoming meetings and activities by either joining our Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/BellevueCollegeArtClub, or subscribing to their mailing list by sending an e-mail to lyris@list.bellevuecollege.edu with “SUBSCRIBE art-club” in the body of the e-mail. Students may also contact Tara Kraft directly through tarakraft@bellevuecollege.edu.