Lapis Lazuli Art Club Founded By Tri-Valley Teens

An intrepid group of teen artists have founded the Lapis Lazuli Art Club to encourage other young artists in the Tri-Valley area to share their talents.

Getting the new year off to a productive start the Art Club held their first leadership team officers meeting on January 2 outlining their plans for 2020.

Their vision is to foster creativity and cultural awareness while providing opportunities for young artists to express themselves.

Whitney Ho, Art Club Advisor, outlined the Club's purpose and reported on their first fundraiser held over the holiday season where the team created succulent arrangements with festive enhancements. The money they raised will be used for further creative projects in 2020.

"Starting this club has been an exciting adventure and I hope to see it grow its influence throughout the community! I hope to see my fellow officers use this club to reach people in our community with their creativity and teach others about different cultures around the world." said Whitney Ho.

The club has also created its own website which includes the following description of who they are "Our mission is for kids who have a passion for art to expand their horizons, contribute to the community, develop priceless leadership skills, meet new people, empower their artistic minds, and bring awareness to art in daily life . We will also be encouraging an exploration of different cultures through our projects. Club activities will include hosting events every month and using profits as donations to other community service organizations."

The Art Club participated in Operation Christmas Child where they packed gifts in shoeboxes to deliver to children in need. They managed to pack twenty-one shoeboxes and were appreciative of the support they received from the community.

The club has also experimented with ways of teaching younger artists to complete art projects and their first was modeling a bird in a terrarium. They designed a 'how to' guide for the project with details including sketches and measurements and is a format they hope to build on in order to make the projects accessible to others.

The leadership team is supported by an equally enthusiastic team of Moms for which they are extremely grateful.

The Art Club invited the Dublin Arts Collective VP, Sawsan Wolski to their meeting to exchange ideas and find opportunities to collaborate. "I am excited to see young people take the lead in fostering the arts and we look forward to working with them on various projects this year," said Ms Wolski.

Each team member has their own strengths and creative flair. Emma Tian, The Art Club's Public Relations Officer, enjoys manga style cartoons, and to recognize the invaluable support of one of her teachers, namely Punita Ghose at Hacienda Elementary School, created a digital sketch of the two in cartoon-style.

The Art Club members attend various art schools across the Tri-Valley area. Dr Sarah Wang, owner of Happy Valley Art School in Dublin, is the Senior Advisor for the Art Club and has been extremely supportive of the team's initiative. The team is planning to expand their Art Club membership this year. Any teen interested in joining the Lapis Lazuli Art Club can sign up for membership via their website.

The name of the club is derived from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli which was highly valued for its intense blue color. The stone was ground into an iridescent pigment and was prized by renaissance painters. The vivid, celestial blue cherished in ancient times remains the symbol of royalty, power, wisdom, truth and vision. The color is reflected in the Art Club logo designed by the team.

Just as many sought after this stone, it is the hope of these teens that people see value in what they are doing and choose to support their mission in the arts.