The Student Exhibit
The New Images program culminates in public Arts Exhibition
at the Windham Area Arts Collaborative Gallery in Willimantic.
Students who participated in New Images came together on May
23rd for the exhibition of their work in photography and creative
writing. The student work was exhibited to the general public
at the Willimantic First Thursday event where over four hundred
people toured the gallery and saw the student work. The exhibit
remained up through the student celebration on May 23rd and
open to the general public through June 4th.
The student work displayed at the Gallery consisted of pieces
that each student created containing a photograph they’d
taken and a piece of creative writing they had produced during
the year. The pieces were then printed at the Griswold High
School print shop under the direction of Tim Conner and mounted
for display by The Lilly Pad. The Windham Area Arts Collaborative
provided the space for the exhibit and the event.
Students from Bloomfield, Griswold, and NFA celebrated by
informally evaluating one another’s artistic works based
on elements they’d learned about effective photography
and writing. They then participated in an open “mic”
session, when they shared their creative writing with one
another. They reflected on their experiences in the program
this year in writing journals. (Samples of the student entries
appear under “The Writer’s corner.”)
Students were also asked to select three pieces from the exhibit
that were their favorites. The three Student Choice winners
selected this year were: “Broken City Fiends,”
by Jason Malouf of Griswold High, “Little Island Paradise,”
by Paulina Lacossade of Norwich Free Academy and “all
the pretty fireflies,” by Danielle West of Bloomfield
High. All three pieces received an equal number of student
votes.
The central theme for this year’s program was “Emotions”
and students’ work explored the ways in which emotion
is both evoked and conveyed by visual and written art. The
students’ work also reflected aspects of their lives,
where they were from, experiences and backgrounds.
