Hewitt News

This April, the Hewitt community gathered to celebrate the opening night of our student-curated art exhibition, Diversity and Identity: The Pieces of Your Puzzle. The exhibition included visual, performative, and written pieces by students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. From thoughtful self-portraits to an interactive world map to a school-wide collaborative mural, each work of art spoke to the exhibition’s theme, recognizing the beauty of the Hewitt community’s diverse perspectives and experiences. 

Working with educators from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, students in Hewitt’s Curatorial Studies class led every aspect of the exhibition, including developing the theme and concept, soliciting submissions, and curating a collection of student art. Through several visits to their exhibition site, an open loft space at the historic Vinegar Factory, Curatorial Studies students also explored how to best use their physical space to tell a story, and along with their faculty advisors, hung and mounted every work on display in the exhibition. 

The opening night reception began with a panel discussion hosted by Hewitt’s Director of Diversity and Inclusivity Jacqueline Nelson in which student curators spoke about the experience of putting together a show that honors and challenges various aspects of identity. After hearing from the curators, guests explored the exhibition, and student artists proudly spoke to visitors about their work. In the days following the reception, the Curatorial Studies class hosted every grade for personal tours through the show, highlighting how each piece of art connected to the show’s theme and answering questions about the process of curating an exhibition. 

To learn more about Diversity and Identity: The Pieces of Your Puzzle and to see a selection of the work that was displayed in the exhibition, we invite you to watch the video below.