Art can make a statement and teach lessons — even when the teachers are 11- and 12-year-olds.
An opening reception will be held tonight to celebrate FRANK Gallery’s latest featured artists: 97 sixth graders from Durham Academy.
The exhibit, titled “Meet Our Heroes,” has been on display in FRANK’s Community Gallery and will continue until April 7. The exhibit features pop-up books created by students in collaboration with teaching artist Peg Gignoux, who helped them illustrate their personal heroes.
“The language arts teachers at Durham Academy have long been interested in doing projects that help students make connections between the visual arts and the written word,” said Julie Williams, one of the three language arts teachers involved with the project.
“We wanted to be able to have students recognize the people in their lives who have the greatest influence on them — people they actually know and look up to in everyday life — and attend to the personal characteristics that make people heroic.”
The Durham Academy sixth graders visited FRANK to work with Gignoux to translate their stories into visual form.
Gignoux has been working with Durham Academy’s sixth graders for almost 10 years, facilitating the creation of these pop-up books, which usually go on display at Durham Academy.
But this year, she decided the books should be more prominently displayed.
“This year was the perfect opportunity to bring the students’ work to FRANK because they have such a huge interest in community outreach,” Gignoux said.
