The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is helping central Ohio high school students see and capture the big picture through its Columbus In Focus program.
The year-long program includes 40 high school students focused on finding their place in history and in their communities through learning about and experimenting with photography. Twenty of the students are from Marion-Franklin High School and twenty are from the Linden-McKinley STEM Academy.
“It’s a real way for them to engage and tell their story. They are given cameras and are empowered to affect change in their neighborhoods and schools. We challenge them to find their voice and be critical of everything in their life especially Columbus during its bicentennial year,” said Kristin Lantz, a school program coordinator at CMA.
The students have been learning about the history of photography from museum curators, aesthetics from world-renowned guest artists, and technical aspects from museum educators. The students are now using the provided cameras to capture their newly informed visions. They will soon come back to the museum for an editing session to prepare their images in Photoshop before the museum has their work professionally framed and hung for an exhibition in the museum’s new Center for Creativity.
“They are documenting their own history. You will never know all the positives that come out of this program. Philanthropy in this is essential. These great moments of engagement wouldn’t happen without philanthropy. It’s the only way that this type of rich education can happen,” said Bobbie Atlas, art teacher at Marion-Franklin High School.
On a recent afternoon, students were at the museum learning about community photography projects and how to engage with new subjects from world-renowned photographer Wing Young Huie. Huie challenged them to interview a student from the other school and ask them very personal yet elemental questions about themselves.
“I try to see photographs as more of a mirror than a window onto the world,” Huie told the students.
After the students had interviewed each other they posed for portraits with the resulting quotes throughout the museum. These photographic exercises have are powerful ways for students to learn about and express themselves.
“It offers a different perspective that I never had before. I can express what I’m feeling inside without saying it out loud and it’s captured forever. I’m biracial and I feel like I never fit in,” said Alexis Quinn, a Linden-McKinley student.
The trust and empowerment students are receiving from their educators is yielding
positive results and inspiring everyone involved. When students wanted more answers from Huie, the photographer had a very simple response, “You are the artist, you decide.”
It is this type of freedom along with the physical act of being given a digital camera that is opening up the students’ creativity.
“How can you be philanthropic without knowing your community and going outside of yourself? Photography teaches you to go outside yourself while still learning about yourself,” Huie said.
You can check out photographs by the students and see behind-the-scenes action of the program on their Flickr page.
Also, be sure to attend the opening reception for their exhibition at the museum on May 3, from 4-7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
More information about local nonprofits is available 24/7 through the Foundation’s online resource, PowerPhilanthropy, which is available to everyone who wants to be more informed about the nonprofits they care about. PowerPhilanthropy makes it easy to donate to the causes you care about at columbusfoundation.org/p2/.
Philanthropy Friday is a feature series produced by The Columbus Foundation that highlights Columbus area nonprofit organizations. For more nonprofit information, follow us on Twitter at @colsfoundation and like The Columbus Foundation on Facebook.
Learn more about the Columbus Museum of Art through their PowerPhilanthropy portrait and also on their website.
