Students from a local high school’s art program were given the opportunity to see their work displayed in the Paul R. Jones on Friday for its annual K-12 Outreach Program Exhibition which runs through Feb 26..
Every year a school from Tuscaloosa County is chosen, and this year’s selection was Holt High School. The primary theme was “identity,” which allowed students to explore the meaning of identity on a personal level, as well as give them a view of identity in the world. Students applied this theme to their art work, which was displayed in the museum.
The students who participated in the exhibit were selected by Holt High School’s art teacher Matt Daugherty, and students gained inspiration from the art in the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art to create their own pieces. The students spent the fall semester working for their artwork to be displayed in the museum along with the collection’s original pieces in the spring.
“Getting to see their response to these pieces is really illuminating. It helps me look at the pieces with a very different perspective,” said Rowan Murry, a collections manager for the museum. “I think that’s a great thing to constantly have new voices and perspectives coming in to help us find new ways to show the collection and provide opportunities for our students.”
The museum supplied materials and resources to assist students in making their artwork, including pencils, erasers and frames. The exhibit also provided Holt High School as a whole the opportunity to show the identity of their school and what it truly represents.
After being notified of the selection, Daugherty selected several pieces from the Collection of American Art that spoke to the theme of “identity.” His students then selected pieces from the collection and created their own in response based on how they interpreted the original pieces.
The students used colored pencils, paint, markers and more to portray their interpretations while focusing on their own thoughts and feelings.
The pieces ranged from recreations of self-portraits to interpretations about the world around them. High school junior Ezra Elmatti said he was “inspired” from an untitled work in the collection to create his piece, “Self Portrait.” Using several colors of acrylic paint on a canvas, Elmatti created a portrait of himself, the piece replicating the subject looking through shattered glass. Each shatter contained a different element that reflected Elmatti.
Sebastian Choncoa, a student from Holt, created his piece “Frog in the Pond,” based on the identity of humanity and the importance of everyone being represented.
“I’ve always seen the idea of everyone as important, not just one race, not just one person. Everyone is important. Everyone in the whole world is important,” Choncoa said.
Daugherty said he was proud of his students and their work, finding similarities between their work and the story of Paul R. Jones. Despite not having much money, Jones wanted to ensure that the voices in the art scene that were not getting heard in national museums and galleries were being seen locally.
“It was great to connect them with a success story,” Daugherty said. “I do have some really high achieving students, and it’s great for them to see their art on the wall.”
