Some of the electives at Masco are only run every other year, causing them to not be as popular as others. Here are two art electives everyone should know about.

AP art history is a year-long course taught by Elizabeth Saitta that covers the history of art from prehistoric times to present times. The class is primarily lecture-based with most of the student’s work is to read and take notes on specific pieces of artwork before in-class lectures the next day.

Since the class needs to go over a total of 250 pieces before the AP exam in May, the class runs on a tight schedule to make sure students are prepared. The students have many review days, which goes along with their tests given every few weeks to wrap up the different content areas. At the end of the year, after students have taken the exam, is when some of the students’ favorite projects take place.

“I really like the project at the end of the year where you kind of take everything that you learned and make your own art piece based off of either someone’s style or like an era in art history,” said senior Maya Schildkraut.

The class also includes fun field trips. Last year students were taken to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where Saitta guided the class on a tour of the museum and they were able to admire works similar to ones they have studied.

Not only is this class an excellent choice for students to fill their art credits if they’re not particularly artistic, but it helps give students a different perspective of the world and history as a whole.

“History for me was never easy,” Said Saitta. “And I don’t think I ever really fully grasped it until I started taking art history classes… I can understand things now much more in-depth than I ever was able to when I was just learning it from…just a historical standpoint.”

A second art elective many students do not know about is Innovative Product Design. This is a semester-long course taught by Evans. In this class, students are able to think conceptually about how to be innovative and create something that has never been seen before. They then turn these ideas into realistic drawings and models.

“Kids that like to think about things like that and be creative and improve their skills with drawing and make things,” said Evans. “I think those are the types of kids that would enjoy this class”

Innovative product design has many exciting projects. Some past ones included, creating working chairs, pendant lights, vehicle designs, and one-time having phone stand designs 3D printed with help from the computer-aided modeling class.

“It’s one of the few art classes at Masco that offers a design-based course structure because a lot of the classes right now are mostly fine arts. I’d say I would definitely recommend this class to any student interested in art. It’s a good combo of kind of math and science,” said senior Megan Brady.

The course selection deadline has been extended, so make sure you take the time to consider all of the great class options to make the best out of your next school year.