Artful Joy: Canton Central Catholic Art Club Inspires Creativity with Hands-On Projects and Personal Touches

Artful Joy: Canton Central Catholic Art Club Inspires Creativity with Hands-On Projects and Personal Touches

Artful Joy: Canton Central Catholic Art Club Inspires Creativity with Hands-On Projects and Personal Touches

Instead of buying T-shirts, students in the Art Club at Canton Central Catholic decorated their own tees and sweatshirts. Fifteen or so members used puffy paint and fabric markers to add whatever their hearts desired. For club president and senior Lexi Kerr, that was a white T-shirt with “Art Club” at the top, in green puffy paint, “Prez” near the bottom and an easel with her thumbprint on it — bearing facial features and curly hair to match her own. Other members added their thumbprints and signatures to Kerr’s masterpiece, finishing it with flair. Through projects such as this, Central Catholic’s Art Club helps students discover their inner artists.

“It’s time to sit down, decompress from the day, have this creative time and express yourself,” says Kerr, whose painting won a top award in a Stark County Teen Art Contest.

Kerr launched the revamped Art Club in fall 2024, with the help of Art Club adviser Joanne Zahler — also an art teacher and art department chairperson at Central Catholic.The club’s members range from students who enjoy making art at home to those who primarily create during art class. They meet monthly and work on a craft each time, such as Christmas photo op cutouts that decorated the school in December. Members also complete projects, like a 24-foot Starry Night mural for the school’s homecoming dance. Using yellow, gold, light blue and white paint, they added their own swirly stars — all in different designs and styles —to blue-painted paper.

“You can really see each artist’s personality in the swirl that they made,” says Kerr of the mural that’s now hanging by the art room. “A lot of the students value shading. … You don’t want it to just be yellow spirals — add dark yellow, light yellow and white to make it really pop.”

Along with other seniors, Kerr created a senior banner by tracing shapes and letters onto felt and then adhering those cutouts to a felt background. The finished all-felt piece states the current Central Catholic senior theme: “By God We Are Chosen. By Name We Are Called.” It depicts a diverse group of people, representing students, in Jesus’ hands— and will be used for the end-of-the-school-year baccalaureate mass. Currently, it hangs by the principal’s office — passing by it each day, students are reminded that their work is appreciated.

“Every time they do a project, they’re so proud of what they do. That’s a confidence booster,” says Kerr. “It really fills up their happiness level.”



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