LAPLACE — St. Charles Catholic High School Art Club and Creative Writing Club members recently participated in a Saturday field trip to the New Orleans Museum of Art.

SCC art teacher Robyn Denny led students through various exhibits of the three-story museum. Denny, who has a Master of Fine Arts degree, highlighted specific works in each room, while focusing on the paintings of Regina Scully, a contemporary artist based in New Orleans.

Students discussed techniques, time periods and cultural influence of assorted artworks.

Kimberly Stuart, a Creative Writing Club sponsor, said it was wonderful to see the students interested in the art and its significance.

“They had so many questions,” Stuart said. “It’s going to provide them with plenty of fodder for their creative work for quite a while.”

Students were later led through the Sculpture Garden in City Park and sketched or wrote about the art they had seen.

“It was cool because some people were in small groups and talked about what they saw and what it meant to them before getting to work, and others sat by themselves right away and started writing or drawing,” said Zoe Garfin, SCC freshman.

Prior to the field trip, students discussed ekphrastic writing and art as inspiration at club meetings and used this knowledge to enhance their experience.

“We learned more about the art, the individual artists and how the techniques improved over time,” junior Hailey Hickman said. “We then used what we learned to inspire us in our own work. The whole time we learned how other people did it. Then we actually attempted to do it on our own.”