Hang12, a board of artistically driven highschoolers curates and showcases art pieces within the Lawrence community.
This group of teens joins together every Tuesday for their weekly meetings to discuss ideas and bring them to life, with a goal of bringing the Lawrence Arts center to the greater community.
The diverse jobs and skills within the organization makes for stimulating and productive meetings. LHS senior Opal Morris, works as the social media manager for Hang12.
“We have different tasks for each of our meetings…That can be from screen printing our merch that we sell, to reaching out to artists or donors, to creating art that will go out at our exhibitions or shows.” Morris said.
With jobs ranging from merchandise coordinator to social media management, Hang12 caters to several different areas of expertise.
“We each have different positions, so we kind of have different jobs for our meetings each week.” Morris said. “I have been in the art scene because of my parents for a long time,” Morris said.
Some students like Morris have spent years around art, but for others it can be a brand new world, either way these students fully submerge themselves in the art and culture of Lawrence.
Many LHS students view Hang12 as a creative outlet that is unlike any other they can find within the community. Thurston SaintOnge, a freshman at LHS who works in creative development for Hang 12, shares this feeling.
“I joined Hang12 for more art opportunities, since I felt like I didn’t have a lot to do at home and at school,” SaintOnge said.
Hang12 is currently focused on their upcoming art exhibition, which junior Lily Havener has been working on.
“It’s a show called “Figure It Out”…we picked different pieces from different people that fit together with our theme…which is figures,” Havener said.
This exhibition will take place on Nov. 15. from 6-9pm at Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop downtown.
This group of young artists works to keep the community and other small businesses involved by embracing their creativity and individuality, which is the reason they chose to work with Sunflower to bring together this exhibition.
“We’re partnering with a local business, downtown…and we’re using their upstairs cafe to highlight a couple artists from Lawrence,” Morris said.
The community is invited to the reception this Friday to meet artists, browse art and participate in the interactive community piece at the “Figure It Out” exhibit.
“We have an interactive element, all the artwork that is going to be there, people will just be able to walk around, look at the art, and meet the artists,” Havener said.
The Hang12 organization has pushed these young artists to pursue and embrace their skills in high school, while also working in a professional environment.
“I think it just, collectively, motivates us all to get out there and do stuff, even though we’re in high school,” Morris said.
Shop. Design Credit Prairie Mulligan
