Today’s the big day—the public can come view a unique collection of student artwork exhibited at the Chrysler Museum of Art from May 9 to June 11 at the Margaret Shepherd Ray Family and Student Gallery.
Arts for Learning staff members have been busy organizing and hanging the artwork at the Chrysler in preparation for the exhibition. Upper elementary students in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach elementary schools created the artwork during an after-school residency named IDEAL, Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages. They were guided by Arts for Learning’s professional teaching artists. 
In the the first year of this three-year residency, 54 students have explored themes of self-identity, collaboration, and community through movement, music, and visual art. The program’s highlight comes this Thursday, May 11 when students will perform and show off their artwork for family, friends, and community leaders at the Chrysler.
“To bring students to the museum and show them it’s their place to have a voice is just an amazing opportunity,” said Anna Green, Chief Operations Officer for Arts for Learning. “It may inspire them to go on and create art or find their voice in movement or music or in other ways.”
Students have been led by Arts for Learning teaching artists Cindy Aitken, Gary Garlic, and Jennifer Graham at Lindenwood Elementary in Norfolk; Asiko-oluwa Aderin, James Cooper, and Nathan Richardson at Westhaven Elementary in Portsmouth; and Jackie Adonis and Valerie Davis at College Park Elementary in Virginia Beach.
There’s no charge for the public to view the exhibit, so make plans to come see how the students in the IDEAL residency have explored themes of identity and community through their artwork. We’re so happy to celebrate the talents and creativity of each one of these students!
THANK YOU!
There was no cost to students to participate in the IDEAL residency thanks to our wonderful sponsors. The Hampton Roads Community Foundation provided the bulk of the project’s funding when it awarded us the largest grant in our organization’s history to be paid over the course of the three-year residency.
Other funders for the first year include Arts Alliance; the arts commissions of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach; Mr. Gary Jensen; National Endowment for the Arts; PRA Group; Portsmouth General Hospital Foundation; Mr. Lawrence Steingold; Tidewater Children’s Foundation; the city of Virginia Beach; Virginia Commission for the Arts; and Walmart.
