The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art has received a grant from Wells Fargo to continue a new program that promotes art literacy in South Mississippi schools.

 

“The World Through My Eyes” began this year as a collaborative project between the museum and school districts in Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties in South Mississippi. It brings professional artists into a participating classroom to guide the creation of student artwork and then installs student artwork as a three-month exhibit at the museum.

 

The goal of “The World Through My Eyes” is to expose school children to the arts and invite them to the museum through experiential art education. The program is open to classrooms from kindergarten through 12th grades and gives teachers and students the tools to connect fields of study to the arts.

 

Funding from Wells Fargo allows this program to expand and benefit more students around the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This grant will help to cover the costs of art supplies, artist compensation and installation for the exhibit.

 

During the first collaboration, artists Rebecca Alston and Allison Stewart worked with 20 fourth- and fifth-grade gifted students from West Wortham Elementary and Middle School. The artists and students created work that explored the importance of protecting and valuing their local environment on land and in the sea.

 

The first exhibit for “The World Through My Eyes” opened May 17 and remains on view.