Step Into Art with Lee Academy at the Codman Square Library, April 2018
Step Into Art with Lee Academy at the Codman Square Library:
Celebrating a Community Partnership and New Exhibition
Pictured above: Step Into Art self-portraits by Lee Academy third-graders on view at Codman Square Branch of the Boston Public Library.
This spring, we celebrated the newest Step Into Art partnership, our third-grade program with Lee Academy Pilot School, an extraordinary inclusion school in Dorchester. Bringing students our signature program featuring art from the Gardner Museum, we also reached out to the community in a new way: we mounted an exhibition at the Codman Square Branch of the Boston Public Library, just a few blocks from the school. Our exhibition transformed the library’s Children’s Room. Walls once bare are now lit up by 52 colorful self-portraits – the faces of Lee Academy third-graders. Display cases long empty are now filled with children’s poetry inspired by art from the Gardner.
In April, we held a celebration at the library, with live music and art-making. The shining moment was when students came forward to read their poems aloud to the large gathering – including many students who have long struggled with language and communication. Third-grader Amarachi opened with these lines: “When I step into the courtyard of the Gardner Museum, I feel like it’s a palace of my own.” Before the celebration was over, the teachers and principal proposed making this program – in all its dimensions – an annual tradition.
Our exhibition at the Codman Square Library is ongoing and will be expanding year by year as our partnership program continues. Come see the students’ creative work. Step Into Art with us!