Talented young artists are expanding their creative canvases within the school hallways and into the community.

The National Art Honor Society (NAHS) is an honor society designed to recognize high school students harboring passion and displaying excellence in the arts. This year, the club has reframed its goals to create art as a means of service to the well-being of the school environment and surrounding community.

Phiona Tu, NAHS co-president, shares that NAHS is pushing to create more murals, bringing more color and expression into the school hallways while promoting the development of a close-knit artistic community.

NAHS has divided the renovation of the lengthy halls among the different art divisions, including studio art. This division plans to paint an architectural mural featuring a timeline of different historic buildings to decorate the social studies department hallway.

According to Tu, NAHS works with a diverse range of artistic mediums and inspires students to step out of their comfort zones.

“NAHS has helped me look at my projects past just a ceramic standpoint,” Tu said. “With all the input from studio art, digital art and photography, I tend to look at my projects a lot differently now.”

NAHS strives to integrate art education with service projects to teach students about collaboration and giving back to the community. The club acts as a cooperative space that fosters creativity and artistic expression for the diverse group of artists within the school community.

“It’s really nice collaborating with each other and coming up with ideas as part of the studio art group,” officer Marissa Campos said.

Along with ensuring students adhere to the rules and regulations of the National Art Education Association, sponsor Stephanie Ellis provides guidance while giving students complete creative autonomy.

“There’s still so many blank walls here at Walter Johnson,” Ellis said. “If we fill a few more spots up, then we can go into the outside world.”

Officers and members have been considering doing projects for nearby metro stations and elementary schools, taking their goals one step further this school year.

“This year, we want to do more because a lot of the officers are seniors, and this is Ms. Ellis’s final year, so we want to go out with a bang,” Tu said.

Through the common goal of sharing artistic excellence with their school, NAHS has fostered a family bond among the talented artists of WJ and are spreading their passion for art into the community.