It isn’t often that students find a club where graffiti is encouraged. However, in Club Ampersand, students wave glow sticks in front of long-exposure cameras to photograph “light graffiti” patterns. Such unusual art projects are only the tip of the iceberg.

Club Ampersand (&), founded this year by seniors Josh Trevett and Chesney Denton, aims to celebrate all types of student art. At meetings, students suggest projects that, according to the club’s online description, “anyone should theoretically be able to participate in.”

“We’re not going to change the world, but we can change your perception about art,” senior Marissa Palmor said. “When you notice something different and creative, it brightens your day.”

Although the club has just been established, it already has a following of 49 members on Facebook, and the club’s Friday meetings in club adviser Seth Donnelly’s classroom, P11, are full of enthusiasm and chatter.

The club brings together many different media and styles of art from across the campus, but the majority of their projects are mainly completed on scheduled Saturdays outside of school. Meetings usually start with a small group activity, such as collaborative drawing or removing the text from comic strips to create new stories. After about 15 minutes, members transition into planning where and when they will work on the latest group project.

Although people have joined the club for different reasons, all share the same excitement.

“It’s trying to get people … to experiment [with different art styles],” senior Marc Goupil said.

Senior Noor Salim discovered Club Ampersand on Club Day and decided it would be a great way to express her creativity.

“They do a lot of creative projects that don’t require a lot of talent,” Noor said. “They have a lot of good ideas … [The light graffiti] is going to be really cool.”

Future projects may include creating stop-action animation, board games, and collaborative short stories.

According to Chesney, the end result of all of these projects may be a compilation of the year’s work, which would probably be posted on the Internet. For now, club members look forward to experimenting with different art media and connection with other students who share their passion for creativity.

“We’re always looking for new members,” Chesney said. “Anyone is welcome.”