Seniors Lauren Chandler and Neely Mullen have started À Crea, a new art club offered to students this school year, in order to provide an outlet for students and their art.

The name, meaning “to create” in Haitian Creole, was decided by the two when first coming up with ideas for the club.

“We named it À Crea because our mission statement was to create an environment to inspire,” Chandler said.

The first meeting was held Monday, Aug. 21. Future meetings will be held during the hour-long lunch period, along with after school and weekend events. Members will be notified by these events through Schoology.

“If you are not good at art, still come and contribute,” Chandler said.

After realizing last May that there was not a club offered to students who are interested in art, Chandler and Mullen came together, along with art teachers Ebony and Jay Johnson sponsoring the club, to create a space where students can express their abilities.

“We want to have a community feel, and we want to make sure it is open to everyone,” Mullen said.

Ebony Johnson was glad the two came to her last year to start this club, proving to her and Jay, that they were ready for the task of starting the new art club.

“Three years ago, I did not think they were ready. Now most of the students really care about the art,” Ebony Johnson said. “They are excited about it and really energetic, and are ready to broaden their view on art and expand on their creativity.“

À Crea is a club that is open to any student who wishes to showcase and express their talent while also meeting others who share the same interests as them.

“If there is something that someone is really into and really passionate about, and they want to teach others how to do it, then we want to give them that platform to do it,” Mullen said.

À Crea is not restricted to just one type of art. The club is meant to showcase all forms of art.

À Crea is meant to showcase many different forms of art instead of focusing on drawing or painting.

“We want them [in the club] whether it be dancing, baking, acting, etc.,” Mullen said.

The club is open to anyone including people with little experience or involvement with art.

“I was convinced that I wasn’t an artist and that I didn’t have an artist bone in my body, but I realized that everyone has one and everyone is able to find that niche in the art community,” Chandler said.

The two founders of À Crea have exciting things planned for the club this year, including pot lucks, weekend studio hours and a lock in where the art students stay from night to the morning and create a project throughout the night.

“We will also have museum crawls like South Side Gallery, Art Crawl in Oxford, Memphis museums, Amelia gallery in Water Valley,  as well as having local artists and Oxford High School alumni coming and talking to us,” Mullen said.

According to Ebony, the main goal for the club this year is to get it started while also spreading it across to younger grades as well.

“[À Crea] needs to come up with an identity of what they want the art club to be at Oxford High School, and maybe that trickle down to the middle school and elementary school and do some work collectively as a whole district,” Ebony said.