Thursday morning, AP Art History lined the stage and performed an original play based on the “Last Judgement of Hunefer”. Starring Nathan Lam as Hunefer, almost every student in the class played a role. Whether they were an Egyptian god, inanimate object, or even a videographer, they all contributed to the success of the presentation.

During second hour, students performed the fifteen minute show. Which meant only a handful of classes attended, however, those who did really enjoyed it. Written by Spencer Nuttall, the script was full of historically accurate plots and contemporary jokes. One chuckle-earning moment was when Hunefer, the protagonist, was misnomered with names like “Poo Sniffer” and “Humidifier”.

After being introduced to the Egyptian piece, students analyzed the art and began their project. Instructor Shelley Lee said, “the kids did everything. They wrote the scripts, they found the costumes, they performed it. I had very little to do with this, and I just was entertained the whole time.”

This project is just one of the many exciting activities these students do throughout the course. “It’s really kind of different day to day,” Lee said, “we have built things out of clay, out of food, [and] we’ve created our own artwork”.

The students love participating in these activities too, “It’s very fun and has a very good curriculum” senior Lila Olive shared.

“Everything we’ve done has been new, it’s all been new learning, this is the only class that I’ve taken that I’ve learned every single day,” senior Connor Olson added.

The class includes a variety of projects even though it is a jam-packed course. “AP Art History starts with prehistory with the ancient cave paintings in France and Spain and then moves chronologically through the time periods…it looks at artwork of all these periods and how it’s the same and different,” Lee said.

Lee sees this as an important learning opportunity. “Studying art is really studying people, humanities, civilizations. It tells us who we are, where we came from, and explains the human condition and how it’s remained the same and how it’s changed over thousands of years,” Lee explained.

Although it seems like a lot of work, it will likely pay off in the long-run. “The students will take the AP exam in May, and if they earn a three, four, or five, they will receive six college credits,” Lee said.

In addition to offering AP credit, this is an opportunity for many students to finally earn their fine arts credit required for graduation. Olson explained, “It’s a good credit for people who can’t do art as well as others but they want to explore and they’re interested in art but they’re not artistic themselves”.

Lee has already started recruiting for the 2022-2023 school year. When asked for her final comments, she exclaimed, “Take this class next year!”