As the senior year of Fine Arts Friday co-creators and co-hosts, Kelsey Bowyer and Jonathan Petro, come to a close, it is a time to reflect on their run and look into the future of NHS’s favorite weekly news segment. Let’s get into it.

     In a partnership that began in a 2013-2014 Music Theory class, longtime friends Bowyer and Petro were approached by music teacher Eric Thornbury to tend to a concern of some students in the Fine Arts department.

     “Multiple students had said ‘we want to see arts recognized on the announcements,’” Thornbury said. “[Something] to bring awareness to how big a role the arts are in our school…”

     However, for the most part, beyond that, Fine Arts Friday has been a ship captained solely by Bowyer and Petro.

     “We were… in the orchestra room and we were like ‘we gotta film this, we gotta edit this, we gotta make it. We got an iPad,’… And we just popped it out,” Petro said.

     Since then, the duo has gained a footing in crafting the show, consistently putting out an installment once a week. Through the year and a half of production, Bowyer and Petro have remained dedicated.

     “I really love doing Fine Arts Friday because I can create a voice for students that aren’t normally heard because they don’t have an outlet,” Bowyer said.

     One such student, junior and digital artist Garrett Kuroiwa, was featured on a recent installment of Fine Arts Friday.

     “There’s a little bit of embarrassment to [being on display] but there’s also a lot of pride,” said Kuroiwa. “[Sharing] is also more of a motivator.”

     But at the end of the 2016 school year and after over fifty Artists Of The Week, Bowyer and Petro will graduate and leave behind Fine Arts Friday.

     “It makes me so sad because this is this thing that we raised and created,” Bowyer said. “People aren’t going to remember us, but they will remember what we did… The school is going to have this crazy thing that two band kids made up.”

     Though the creators of Fine Arts Friday are leaving NHS, they hope that the show will stay for much longer.

     “I’d like to come back here just to watch a Fine Arts Friday, it have a new intro and have the same spirit but to see a new take on it. Keep it fun, silly, “ said Petro.

     So, Fine Arts Friday will not leave NHS along with it’s creators. A means of selecting successors has not yet been announced, but the process is to be overseen by the people who care about the show the most: it’s creators.

     “I just want people to remember that it’s not about who’s on [Fine Arts Friday],” Bowyer said. “It’s about getting to know, and be a part of the creative voice of NHS.”