On May 7, 2016, student work from the ARTE program at the Pan American International High School (PAIHS) was exhibited at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as part of the Arts in Education Continuing the Conversation 2016 conference.
Student artwork, through the support and direction of PAIHS teacher Clare Kambhu and ARTE Curriculum Development Coordinator, Michaela Miragliotta, focused on the rights of immigrants and of refugees. Students were asked to create a piece of art work on immigrants and/or refugees using acrylic paint on canvas and also elements of wheatpasting. Several students also incorporated QR codes into their art work. When these codes were scanned with a smartphone, an important fact on immigrants and/or refugees would be brought up.
As many of the students involved in the project are recent immigrants from Latin America, this human rights issue is especially relevant. Several of the students incorporated black and white images of their own family members who might have emigrated.
In order to further facilitate a discussion between our students in Queens and educators in Boston, educators at the conference were asked to respond to some of the questions posed in student artwork by writing encouraging notes to be shared with student artists.
If you are interested in learning more about how to support immigrant youth who have fled from violence in Central America, please visit the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's new campaign. This campaign addresses the needs of youth who are often faced with attending deportation hearings without an adult family member or lawyer to support them in front of a judge.