An Art Class for Anyone

I hadn’t taken an art class in years. The last time I did was in elementary school when it was part of our curriculum. In middle school, I took music classes for nearly every extracurricular, though I’m not sure it was actually allowed. In high school, I started at a magnet school where I was in the orchestra, and for extracurriculars, had one class for practicing the instrument and the other for music theory. When I switched schools in my junior year, my extracurriculars for both junior and senior years were music classes. I did orchestra in my junior year and orchestra and chorus in my senior year. 

Since I’d surrounded myself with music for so many years, I was hesitant to branch out. I was scared to try something new and not be good at it instantly. I didn’t want to give others the chance to ridicule me over my lack of talent. So I stayed in my safe space of music and never left. That changed during my second semester at Arcadia. 

When I was making my schedule for my second semester classes, I figured that since I had a pretty good grasp of my academic classes, I should get some of my Arcadia undergraduate curriculum requirements. One of them was Visual Arts. When I looked at the classes that I could take to fulfill the requirement, I saw a drawing class. I like art, though I’m not very good at drawing. I figured that if I took the course, I could get better at drawing. So I went to sign up for the class—only to find that it was full.

I looked for another class, and found Metals and Jewelry I with Maryann Worrell. I was a bit worried since I had no experience with metal whatsoever, so I asked my Honors mentor for help. He told me that he’d enjoyed the class when he took and encouraged me to take it as well. So I did. And it’s been one of the best choices that I’ve made at Arcadia.

The class is interactive even though we’re not in person. Before we started the class, Professor Worrell sent emails with the class Discord server and information about how to get the tool kit that we would need for class (they shipped mine to me). When I got the kit, it was filled with pretty much everything that I needed for the class, and I started to feel excited about the potential of the class and how much fun it could be. 

The class turned out to be even better than I thought it would be. For our projects, we sketch drafts of at least five things that we’d like to make and choose one to create. Using what we learned in class, we make our projects and, on the due date, we share what we made with the class. 

Learning the different techniques of manipulating metals was actually fun. Maryann showed us how to do things in class and posted videos for us to watch in case we needed help. Since our class was online, communicating with Maryann and my classmates was easy (though I was usually too nervous to). Through the class Discord, all of the students in the class are able to share pictures of their pieces so they can be critiqued. We also used Jamboards to show the progress of our pieces and ask our classmates for any advice.

Metals and Jewelry has been one of my favorite classes. Even with all of the disadvantages brought on by COVID, Professor Worrell was able to make the class interactive and enjoyable. I highly recommend this class to anyone who needs to fulfill their visual arts requirement or anyone who’s creative and wants to take a class that they can enjoy!