By Katie Palmer
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Skagit Valley College attracts many artists with its wide array of art classes available. As such, SVC now has a vast artist community. The Whidbey Campus art club was created to bring together this community.
I spoke with Dusti Morales, one of the art club advisors, about what the art club is, what it does, and how COVID-19 has impacted it. When asked about how the club started, Morales commented “A former student was complaining about how he needed art friends, so I told him to start a club, and I’ll be the advisor. And he did some of the paperwork to get it going but we had a lot of trouble because there was a really fast turnover for that student life position and so it took us a long time to get everything pushed through, so we were unofficial for a long time. We’d just meet at the park, hang out, draw and have snacks.”
Morales went on to expand on how difficult the process of starting the club was. She mentioned there was a lot of paperwork, and having never started a club before, she learned quite a lot. She researched through other clubs charters and checking with the student life advisor on what they were able to do with the club. Morales continued, explaining the excitement of starting the club “We were figuring out what we wanted to do, you know, what sounds good? Art movie night? Musical sketchbooks? Blindfolded Pictionary ‘cause that’s hilarious. and so the ideas just kept flowing until well, let’s make buttons, let’s make stickers, lets make t-shirts let’s collaborate with other clubs, and it kinda just kept going.” Morales went on to show me many of the stickers that the club members had created, via submitting the artwork and ordering the stickers through a website. The art club makes the buttons themselves through the button machine in the Skagit library. Morales mentioned that the library had been very helpful with the club overall.
When asked about how many members the club has, Morales commented that she wasn’t completely sure. “We probably have about 5 people who show up pretty consistently. Our distribution list has about 30 people on it, and there’s been some who’re on it and just haven’t stopped by, but you know, I get it, the schedule doesn’t work for everybody.” When asked about the distribution list, Morales explained that it’s just a list that includes the names of those who will get updated on the club, where and when they’re meeting, all the activities they’re doing and more. Morales mentioned that many faculty who notice students doodling in their homework margins will comment to the students that there is an art club, and get their name on the distribution list.
Of course, like all other campus activities, the art club has been affected by COVID-19. Morales expanded on the disadvantages on this, as well as some of the advantages. “In some ways we’ve been pretty okay. Like we’ve found other things that we can do, I guess it’s not a whole lot different since we all hang out on zoom and do art together, and we’re all pretty geeky and share a similar political alignment, so there’s a lot of discussion about that and art, obviously.” Morales
continued that they used to play a lot of art related games as well, of which they can’t do over the internet. “Things like that I do miss, and I miss sharing the food.” Morales added.
“Something that’s been the trickiest is we haven’t really been able to do fundraisers,” Morales started, after being asked about the more difficult logistical challenges of the pandemic. “Since we’re not allowed to take money through PayPal or anything like that because of a college federal funds rule that money can’t go out of state, and if we get money through PayPal it goes out of state.” Morales expanded that because of this, they haven’t been able to do their average sticker sale fundraisers. She mentioned that they’ve looked for other ways of doing them, but as of currently all of those have fallen through.
While Morales doesn’t think the club will be returning anytime soon, mentioning that everyone’s safety was the most important, the club has hopes to raise some money for charity through the club’s sticker sales when they’re able to do them again.
When talking about the advantages to the online format, Morales mentioned that the club isn’t just confined to Whidbey anymore, since it’s so easy for anyone to come on Zoom, and the club even has students who live in Sedro-Woolley attending, as well as some family and friends of the members, and Morales herself “We wrote the charter intentionally that nonstudents could be members, they just don’t have voting rights, so yeah if other people want to come play, the more the merrier. It’s a fun, lighthearted club most of the time.” Morales added.
The Whidbey Campus art club is always open for new members, even if you don’t currently live near the Whidbey campus, their figurative internet club doors are open to all artists through Zoom, so be sure to stop by if you’re interested in some art friends, discussion, and fun.
