On October 8th, Brookfield Central’s art department twitter account tweeted the very first picture of a piece of art, a blue shark sculpture with designs all over it, with the explanation “Coming soon… Random Acts of Art.  Where will this shark sculpture be abandoned for you to find???” and the hashtag #randomactsofartBC. The following Tuesday, Oct. 14th, a new tweet was posted, showing yet another piece of artwork, but this time, the tweet stated “PJ the dinosaur has been abandoned. Looking for a new home  #randomactofartBC.” This tweet started the three weeks long random acts of art at BC, ending on the last day of October.

What the art department did was, to put it simply, a mini-scavenger hunt for little treasures hidden throughout the school. These treasures came in the form of small, creative pieces of artwork, varying from small sculptures to paintings. The art students, after completing their work and attaching a note to their artwork, would choose a random location in the school to abandon and hide their artwork, which would then remain there until a lucky student found it. These locations varied drastically; some were found inside elevators, on the ledges above the bubblers, and underneath the stairs by the library. The styles of the artwork also differed greatly, evident in the pictures tweeted by BC’s art department. The anticipation for the discovery of the artwork was heightened with tweets of a picture of artwork that is about to be hidden, causing students to wonder where and when it will be found. If, in the instance that the creator of the artwork checked and the artwork still had not been found by the end of the day, the art was simply relocated to a different location, where hopefully someone would find it the following school day.

In return to the amazing, free art, the art department only asked that the students followed the request on the note attached to the artwork, which, in some cases, also gave the name (and occasionally the twitter handle) of the artist who made it. The writing on the note for every piece of art was the following: “Free Art. Brookfield Central High School art students are sharing their talent by leaving artwork in random locations for others to find and enjoy. Enjoy it or pass it on to someone else. Let us know it has been found by tweeting @bchs_art. #randomactsofartBC.”

Not only did the art department create a fun, creative activity for all students at BC, even those not involved in art, but this event also demonstrated the generosity of art students who gave up the art that they most likely appreciated and put lots of thought and effort into. These acts are not just random acts of art, but random acts of kindness and smiles, brightening up the day of the students that had the fortune of stumbling upon and discovering one of the unique pieces of artwork.