Artwork of local junior high students featured in MFAH exhibit

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, one of the largest museums in the country, has an extensive collection of artwork with pieces from all over the world and spanning thousands of years of history. Now, 30 McCullough Junior High students, ages 13 and 14, have the great honor of having their art work displayed at the prestigious museum in an exhibition titled Learning Skills for Life through Art.

The special exhibit featuring local students’ artwork opened on July 3 and will run until January 10, 2016. Laurie Adams and Cindy Moss, longtime art teachers at McCullough, were given the opportunity to showcase the work of their junior high students after working with MFAH for the past three years as teacher fellows for Learning Through Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The goal of the program is to connect the MFAH’s collection of art to classroom curriculum.

“Twelve years ago we [Adams and Moss] took a class at the MFAH on Learning Through the Arts, which is a curriculum to tie the four core subjects and art together,” explained Moss. “We loved it and have used it consistently in our teaching over the past 10 years. We have continued to take classes at the MFAH and stayed in contact with the people that teach LTA, so when they were looking for art teachers to help write the new online curriculum, we were invited. It's been a three-year process that was extremely rewarding to watch it all unfold. We worked with some wonderful science, math, history and language arts teachers that represented the best quality teachers in the Houston area.”

Adams and Moss chose three themes as inspiration for the exhibit to help their students consider and reflect on the world around them. The themes were: “Portraits That Communicate,” “Visualizing Sounds,” and “Objects That Define Who I Am.”

“Art that relates to an artist's life has more meaning and makes investing in that piece worthwhile,” said Moss. “We also cover the skills and techniques in our curriculum that are essential to our student's growth as artists when we design their lessons.”

Although already open for viewing, the formal opening for the exhibit will be on September 27 at the MFAH from 2-3 pm. The event is free and open to the public who wish to support local students and their artwork.

“Not many artists can boast their work hangs in the MFAH, let alone 13 and 14-year-old artists! It's a once-in-a-lifetime event that is super special. Everything is curated by the MFAH so it is very professionally done and really makes us all feel like first class artists,” said Moss.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is located at 1001 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas 77005. For more information about the Learning Skills for Life through Art exhibit, visit the link provided below.