Art Car Club’s latest car competed in the Houston Art Car Parade, attended by over 300,000 spectators, themed around a celebration of Houston’s strength in downtown Houston on April 13. Out of over 20 high school contestants in the parade, Bellaire’s art car did not place.

In the early hours of the parade, cars were set up for judging near Dallas and Bagby Street and Bellaire’s art car was assigned number 21. Local parade volunteers on roller skates called “Wranglers” cleared the parade path as 250 cars, sent in from 23 states as well as Canada, lined up for the parade just before 2 p.m.

“The art car took an incredible amount of time to make,” junior and Co-President Cathryn Vera said. “I’m just proud of how everyone on the team was so patient, motivated to work and dedicated, regardless of how we placed.”

The car featured a decorated “H” structure on top composed of two seven-foot aluminum “skyscrapers” which read “Houston Strong.” The “H” atop the car stood between other decorations of city homes and the waves of a powerful hurricane meant to represent Hurricane Harvey and other hurricanes that have hit Houston in the past decade.

“The idea with the wave was that our town was being blocked by the H, showing how strong our community is despite how hard each hurricane hit us,” junior and Co-President Aria Jin said. “The other parts of the car were centered mostly around ‘Houston Strong.’ They were surrounded by stories of the community coming together around the sides of the cars, such as the National Guard rescuing civilians from their homes.”

Prior to the event itself, members of Art Car Club spent “over a hundred” after-school hours finishing the car.

“This year we had to stay until around midnight in the Bellaire garage the day of,” Jin said. “It was a prime example of how hard the last few weeks before the parade were.”

But the late hours all led up to the day of the parade. At 2 p.m., the parade began to roll. As Bellaire’s car was a school car, it was given higher priority, going out as an earlier number in the parade. Art Car Club members walked with the car as it progressed down the road.

“We were behind the car most of the time, smiling and waving to all the spectators,” junior and member Rahul Nanjundan said. “It was really exciting to walk by our creation. It was a really fun space, especially when we were doing it with our friends, too.”

The parade procession ended at about 4:30 p.m. Members of Art Car Club held a dinner at Enoteca Rossa, an Italian restaurant in Bellaire, afterward.

“It was really tiring that day and for the past few weeks, but I enjoyed having a day like that after so much dedication to a huge project,” junior and member Alessandro Trevino said. “I thought it was really fun because I got to hang with my friends for an entire day and had an amazing dinner afterwards.”

After the parade, the art car stood finished in the school parking lot after its debut. In the end, Jin saw the club’s final work as more than a regular car.

“Our art car is a symbol of community and unity of Bellaire, or even broader, Houston,” Jin said. “To me, it’s kind of like a representation of Bellaire High School and the people in it. The ideas on the car are a mix of everyone’s minds, and I think that, along with the cultural aspects of the car, make it a masterpiece of Houston.”

To learn more about the Art Car Parade, visit its website thehoustonartcarparade.com.

To learn more about Art Car Club, follow its Remind @bhsartcar or its Instagram @bhs.artcar.