Hub for artistry: SAAHA student leaders share their vision
Megan Gray, secretary of SAAHA, models her mask inspired by a jellyfish. She made it during one of the club's events in October. Photo courtesy of Santiago Nuñez.
By SANTIAGO NUÑEZ/ Multimedia Editor
Whether it’s a build-up of laborious assignments, tiring work hours or a general lack of time, making room for creativity to blossom can be a hassle for college students.
However, there is a student organization where creativity and individual expression run rampant.
The Studio Art and Art History Association (SAAHA) is dedicated to fostering community between those who share a common love for art.
“It’s very important to create kind of like a family dynamic,” SAAHA Secretary Megan Gray said. “The department’s pretty big, so we try to keep a good relationship with all the different mediums all the way across the board.”
Activities such as a mask making event Oct. 27 help bring the mediums of the department together by combining them into one project.
According to SAAHA Vice President Luis Perez, attendance at SAAHA events isn’t limited to art majors. Any UT Tyler student can participate.
“We do have a couple of non-art students that participate in the events and come to the meetings as well,” Perez said. “So, we’re trying to reach even further, to the other departments, and have more of a presence in the campus.”
Perez’s vision for a larger presence involves getting more student art into different departments. SAAHA furthers this goal by holding a student art sale.
“It’s not just art students who get themselves involved in the art sale, like we’ve had a biology major participate,” Meredith Freeman, the organization president, said. “It’s just matter of showing up and involving yourself.”
Luis Perez, the vice president of SAAHA, constructs a mask during a club event in October. SAAHA wants to be more of a presence on campus. Photo courtesy of Santiago Nuñez.
Proceeds from art sales help fund SAAHA’s events.
“One of the big things about college experiences in general is making that community and finding the kind of people that you want to be with,” Perez said. “So, we’re hoping that since we open our doors and our organization to everyone, it becomes more of a UT situation rather than an art situation.”
Involvement is incredibly important to Perez. The bigger the organization gets, the more it can achieve.
SAAHA leaders have plans to produce works at the county level and work with outside organizations to create murals in Tyler.
Meredith Freeman, president of SAAHA, takes part in a mask-making event. Photo courtesy of Santiago Nuñez.
However, with every bit of good SAAHA has accomplished, there’s also been rough patches.
“People forgot that we existed,” Gray said. “So, that’s a huge part of it. There’s also like the administration part of it; our club actually just didn’t exist at all. We had to hop through a bunch of loops to get it legitimized.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when campuses halted in-person attendance, SAAHA suffered in terms of membership, budget and exposure. This set back its progress.
“We’re hoping that the same thing doesn’t happen, by involving the future members [we’re guarding against that],” Perez said. “We’re gonna work hand in hand with them for the next couple of months to make sure that they understand what needs to happen, because that’s not something we received. We were just like, ‘Here’s something, do you want to be part of it,’ and like no explanation. It was hard to hunt down.”
Although SAAHA may not yet be what its members are striving for, the progress the organization has made creates great pride and hope among members.
“People got used to not being part of things during COVID and so getting people to come at first was difficult, at first I think it was just board members, and like three or four people, and it just kept growing,” Perez said. “And now we’re actually pretty excited at the amount of people that are showing up.”