In a school mainly focused on athletic successes, other non-sports related achievements can be easily overlooked. Although almost every student at Oakton participates in at least one sport, there are lots of extracurricular activities Oakton students take part in. There are a numerous amount of elective courses like photojournalism, marketing, and leadership that all offer lots of after school clubs and activities for Oakton students. One of these, is Oakton’s visual arts program, known as the Visual Arts Society.

Under the umbrella that is the Visual Arts Society there are three main categories: visual arts, photography, and computer graphics. Both the visual arts and photography classes use The Gallery frequently to display their works. Although the space is mainly filled with work by art students, The Gallery is also used by other departments at Oakton to display special project-based work.

The main purpose of The Gallery is to provide a space for art students in the Visual Arts Society to display their work. Over the course of the school year, there are many different concept-based exhibitions that are shown in The Gallery. The first major exhibition is the Scholastics Exhibit, which takes place in the fall. At the Scholastics Exhibit, Oakton student’s artwork that has won scholastic recognition awards are presented. Another big exhibit is the Pyramid Show. At the show, works from Oakton’s elementary and middle feeder schools as well as current Oakton student’s works are put on display. This function is incredibly exciting for participating families because it gives those families a glance at Oakton’s art program, and what possibilities lay ahead in high school for their art students. Lastly, towards the end of the year, the AP Portfolio students use the space to display their thematic and concept-based portfolio work before sending them off to College Board.

Despite there being scheduled exhibitions throughout the school year, the process to put work on display is quite simple. Any art student is allowed to request space in The Gallery to display any artwork they wish to be exhibited. The same goes for student-run groups or clubs that would like to use the space to display projects. The process is rather informal, allowing for all Oakton students to have an opportunity to display things they find important to the Oakton community.

So the next time you walk past The Gallery, take a quick look inside to see what your peers have been working on.