Shadle Park students partner with the Museum of Arts and Culture for ‘wonderful’ new exhibit

Shadle High School students flooded into the Create Space at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture recently, excited to see their artwork hanging on the walls.

“There I am! There I am!” one student exclaimed.

The art show is the result of weeks of work by the students. Art teacher Carrie Stroud and special education teacher Darby Schmidlkofer started talking months ago about the possibility of their students collaborating on a project. As word spread, their entire departments wanted in.

The project paired special education students with art students, and they worked together to make a piece of art. Some made drawings or paintings, while others made 3D flowers.

“We would meet every Thursday for two months,” Stroud said. “They would go back and forth until they were done.”

Fatimah Al Mohammed, a freshman, is taking a beginning art class. She doesn’t have any prior experience in art, but decided to try the class.

“It’s just experimenting, basically,” she said.

She partnered with special education student Aria Merrill. Their art piece is broad streaks of mostly pastel colors covered by cutouts of various shapes, including hexagons and stars.

Fatimah said she did the shapes and Aria did the colors.

“I really like it,” she said.

Aria said she picked some of her favorite colors for the art piece. She likes to paint and often does it at home, she said.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said. “It was really fun.”

Fatimah said she wanted to participate in the project in part because she wanted the special education students to be fully a part of the school.

“Me and my friends thought we should help because they deserve to be involved in our school and be involved in art,” she said. “It brings them closer to other people and gives them the real high school experience.”

The results of the project aren’t just hanging on the walls of the MAC, Stroud said. It helped increase the confidence of students, and project partners now greet each other in the hallways. Stroud said she has seen a difference in Aria. Before this process, she would often sit by herself. She now sits at a table full of other girls.

“This is what inclusion does,” Stroud said.

Museum school programs manager Lindsey Newton said the museum was happy to help when the Shadle teachers approached them about doing an art show.

“We’re happy to do that and support teachers, especially art teachers,” she said. “This was a good fit for complimenting the work they’re doing in their classroom.”

The Create Space offers a variety of self-guided activities and crafts for children who visit the museum and also hosts the museum’s story time on Saturday mornings. It’s not usually used to display art, let alone student art.

“It’s relatively rare for us to do this,” Newton said.

The photo of each artist or artists is displayed underneath most of the art pieces. The art display is expected to be up at least until the end of May, Newton said.

Stroud said she’s pleased by the results of her school’s inclusive art project.

“We’re enjoying it so much, we want to do more of this,” she said. “Wonderful art came out of it.”