Featured image: New Harmony Sophomore Kayln Jackson talking about her working during the opening reception for What is Harmony. Photo by Nic Aziz
As part of our on going collaboration with New Harmony High School and the New Orleans Museum of Art, NOPA coordinated a project to with local students to explore the fundamentals of photography and curating with some of the city’s foremost artists. The culmination of this project, What Is Harmony?, will be on view to the public on an exterior fence outside of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in City Park through August, 2021.
During the opening reception for What is Harmony? this past Sunday, July 25, students had the opportunity to talk about their photographic work. Congratulations to these students for placing in the viewers’ choice competition:
1st Place: Ali Gallo
2nd Place: Amare’ “Cooley” Carriere
3rd Place: Jarrell Wiley, Bella Bernard, and Hector Campbell
All students who participated in this project will receive a one-year NOPA student membership.
As part of their world literature curriculum, Sophomore students from New Harmony High analyzed Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, a novel about Nigeria’s Igbo culture and the violence it endured through colonialism. Through the novel’s themes, they consider how people can collectively build a more sustainable future for ourselves, our communities, and the environment. Students’ visions of change were expressed through the medium of photography. In addition to reading and discussing Things Fall Apart, the students attended lessons from local artists. Weekly workshops and artist-led photo prompts were provided by Monique Verdin, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, Aubrey Edwards, Lisa Cates, Brittany Lindsey, Cody Ainey, and Nic Brierre Aziz.