by Niyati Rana ('25)
On Thursday, March 13 SBHS’s Amnesty International Club will host its annual “Art 4 Amnesty” event. The event is planned to take place right after school from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the blue cafeteria with a five-dollar fee at the doors.
The event’s purpose is to advocate for human rights and social injustices occurring in the world with the usage of art. This includes topics such as women’s rights, indigenous rights, refugees and migrants, privacy rights, etc. All students who attend the event will be given supplies such as tote bags, paint, and brushes to demonstrate their skills and bring awareness to current world issues.
Club President Rakshana Devalla said, “Art for Amnesty is an event meant to highlight activism. We try to promote human rights through creative forms of expression, like writing and painting. This year, we are focusing on advocating for immigration rights and ‘stopping the deportation machine,’ in Amnesty’s words.”
Students will also have the opportunity to showcase their work and topic being covered by submitting it for display in an art gallery. Anyone interested in presenting their artwork at the event must submit their work before the event, no later than March 11 in D303 after school.
This opportunity is completely optional with no submission fee. Students submitting their work to spread awareness are also required to fill out a Google form given by the Amnesty International Club.
Devalla said, “Discussing human rights is important because everyone deserves to live their life fairly. By advocating for human rights, we are able to help people from around the world by bringing awareness to their causes and taking action.”
Once all artworks are featured and displayed, other students will have the ability to browse through all the artworks and vote for the ones they believe best resonate with them. After that, the artists with the most loved pieces of the night and with the most votes will be given prizes, such as special Amnesty merchandise donated by local businesses.
Within the art works, some categories peers can look forward to seeing in the gallery include written works, hand-drawn art, digital art, etc. This event is incredibly special, and the Amnesty club looks forward to giving students a night to admire art, spreading awareness and advocating for human rights issues.
Devalla said, “I’m personally interested to see everyone’s various interpretations of Amnesty’s National Week of Student Action theme ‘stopping the deportation machine.'"