The National Art Honor Society at Malvern hopes to honor the senior class by painting the block where the sidewalk “ends” on campus.
The National Art Honor Society (NAHS) had been brainstorming all year about ways to commemorate this special senior class. Now, they have come up with their plan to both honor this year’s seniors and to create a long-lasting tradition that future seniors can continue.
The seniors of NAHS will paint an image honoring the senior class on a sidewalk block where the sidewalk ends on Malvern’s campus. It will be right under the “mini-library,” according to faculty adviser of NAHS Mr. Robert Muntz.
Muntz said that he and the NAHS knew that they should decorate the stone where the sidewalk ends, when the mini-library was installed there.
The mini-library is a small, wooden house founded by English teacher Mr. John Bohannon, and NAHS decided that it was a good spot for the stone.
“There is another group on campus that made the mini-bookstore where Dennis Hall used to be,” Muntz said. “So we thought, wouldn’t it be cool to decorate that stone as a commemorative thing for art students to do.”
Muntz gave most of the credit to English teacher Mr. Jason Sammartino ’04 in having the idea for the stone.
“It evolved into him telling me how Drexel’s fraternity row has each frat commemorate the year by painting these stones, with things that only their class knows about, things that were really special to their class for those seniors that would graduate,” Muntz said.
Senior Tait McGlinn, the President of NAHS, said that they spoke to Head of the Upper School Mr. Ronald Algeo about the idea, and he loved it. Next, they sent out a survey to the senior class to gather ideas on what designs they could paint on the stone.
Many seniors responded with their ideas, and NAHS secretary senior Nick Rubino said that one possible suggestion was seen more than others.
“We want to do something that involves everyone in the senior class, so I think we will be doing something revolving around MECO,” Rubino said.
Muntz said that the team of seniors in NAHS will get their design figured out first, and then after the Visual Arts Show at Malvern on April 27, the seniors will have a week and a half to paint the stone before their final day of classes.
During that time, McGlinn said that any senior who wants to come over and paint is welcome.
“It will just start out with the National Art Honor Society members, but we open the invitation to any senior who wants to come over,” McGlinn said.
Rubino thought that this is a great way to honor both this year’s senior class and to have the next class of students continue that tradition by painting over it the next year in April.
“The senior stone will be something that will bring my class together and hopefully will set a precedent for future Malvern classes to come together and paint something new every year,” Rubino said. “It’s also something returning graduates from my class can come and see when they’re on campus and say they participated in creating it.”
