Arapahoe has a tradition of displaying students’ artistic talent by displaying their art in The Fall Art Show. The Fall Art Show displays many different types of student art from different classes such as photography, digital design, and drawing. If you wish to take a look for yourself, all the art is displayed near the bubble entrance and along the walls of the east hallway.

The Fall Art Show displays just under 600 students’ art work, which took up to 5 hours to arrange, even with 5-6 student helpers. The Fall Art Show is going on its 15th year, and is a teacher selection show.

Jill Hawthorne, the Chairperson of the Visual Arts Department said, “We as the art teachers pick the stuff that goes in the show. When we look at things, I mean, obviously, our first choices are probably the ones that are good.” 

However, not all the art is created by seasoned or experienced artists; some of the art displayed is by novice artists. 

Hawthorne said: “We really like to put up artwork to reference all levels … Some kids really struggle with art because they don’t do it as much. So I think it’s also a good representation of the students that we see that have persevered and really tried hard to do something, even if it’s not in their wheelhouse.” 

There will also be a spring art show, Art Attack, which is an ongoing tradition of 18 years. It started off a lot smaller but gradually got larger as the years went on. While the Fall Art Show and Art Attack have their similarities, they also have significant differences. One difference is that Art Attack gets roughly 1000 pieces of art in their shows, while the Fall Art Show is only 300-600 pieces of art. 

The biggest difference between the Fall Art Show and Art Attack is that the art in Art Attack is student-submitted. Hawthorne said, “Students can put up to two pieces of artwork in every category … It is also a show that we bring in a panel of jurors, so typically professional artists and other art teachers come and they are the ones that select the best in the show, so they’ll pick the top three in every category.”  

“We’re trying to create more of a true artistic exhibition for artists because that’s what you would do if you were in the real world,” Hawthorne said.