Most students pay no attention to the art on the lunchroom walls, likely because the artists are former students from several years ago. Unfortunately, the cafeteria space currently occupied by outdated art is a missed opportunity to showcase new student artists.

The annual Festival of the Arts is currently the only opportunity for talented Whitman students to show and sell their studio art pieces to the entire school. While students interested in art can contribute to many other school events—hallway decorating, art in the media center, theater posters and community service projects—they are rarely recognized for these contributions.

Whitman should replace the art in the cafeteria with art by current students. Allowing artists to put their work on the walls of the school would allow them to reach students daily, not just at Festival of the Arts.

Principal Alan Goodwin and art teacher Jean Diamond first put large pieces of student art in the cafeteria about five years ago, but their original installation has yet to be replaced.

There are enough talented artists and pieces of art currently in school to fully replace the showcased art. Festival of the Arts alone has an extensive collection of several hundred visual art pieces each year.

Replacing the art on the wall would help give deserved appreciation to the art department. While the pieces currently on the walls are great, it would be more interesting for students to see their peers’ paintings, not those of students from five years ago.

Additionally, the display could be expanded to include photography; exceptional student photography is barely recognized beyond a small square of wall space in the front hallway. Allowing some photos to be hung in the cafeteria would give a more widely viewed and recognized platform for photographers.

Replacing the art, however, takes money and time. Materials alone would cost up to $150 per painting, Diamond said. For photos, that amount is reduced somewhat to $45 per photo for printing, photography teacher Mike Seymour said.

Painting a piece large enough to hang in the cafeteria also takes a long time, which must be spent outside of class, as it isn’t part of the normal studio art curriculum. Diamond said that the plan might require a school-sponsored club set up solely to accomplish this project.

But student art is worth this cost. It would not need an unreasonable amount of money—only a few hundred dollars to completely overhaul the cafeteria art. And if a club is necessary, then it can easily be created by motivated students.

The art can be replaced about every two years to adequately represent each class’s art, while still honoring some old pieces.

Updating the art would allow current artists to show their work all year long. Then students could enjoy their friends’ art anytime, not just for two days every spring.