The Art Appreciation Club at the ALC Marrakesh was founded in October 2008 by English Teacher and Mixed Media Artist Noah Haytin, who is currently a full time Visiting Teacher from California. The Club, which is the first of it’s kind at the ALC Marrakesh, meets weekly on Saturdays for 1.5-2 hours to discuss, produce, and critique Art both in and outside of the classroom through image/data projection, trips to local galleries, guest speakers, and hands on projects. The Club’s aim is to act as a creative, interactive, and informative outlet for beginning level, aspiring Artists and those who merely want to better their understanding and appreciation for the visual arts.

The Club is now in its second semester and is going strong. Students have been introduced to the local gallery scene in Marrakesh, and now know the names and the work of some local exhibiting Artists. Regular members can now express their ideas about Art more articulately through art related vocabulary lists that are introduced to the Club members on a regular basis and implemented into discussions about Artwork. Students have been exposed to various techniques and media such as drawing portraits from photographs and collaborative/narrative works on paper using plain graphite and colored pencils, pens, and collage materials. The students alternate between short term in class projects, excursions, discussions, and working collaboratively on a longer term project that is due to be exhibited at the ALC Marrakesh in June 2009.

Club member and artist, Amal Rafik, writes, "As everybody knows Art is a powerful vehicle for communication to express visions that are beyond the capacity of words. For me, the Art Club was really the opportunity to explore my talent, and also with our teacher’s assistance, which I am thankful for, we found our true inspiration by doing many activities such as visiting Art Galleries and learning new techniques in Art."

Here are some examples of recent work (including some interesting portraits of President Obama !)