U-46 goes digital for its annual student art shows

The year-end “VISION” art show is an annual high school tradition in Elgin Area School District U-46, and since an in-person exhibit wasn't possible, a digital version was created.

“Our talented high school art teaching team has been working tirelessly to ensure that our students continue to receive high-quality instruction during Distance Learning,” said U-46 Fine Arts Coordinator Jaimie Giraldo. “In addition to this planning, we wanted to find a way for our students to have their annual art show this spring, despite the COVID closures.”

All five of the district's comprehensive high schools are represented in the show, which features more than 100 pieces of art, some created during in-person instruction and some during distance learning.

Giraldo collected the work curated by the high school art staff and loaded them into a virtual gallery on the platform Kunstmatrix. The digital exhibit mimics the experience of walking through a gallery; you can zoom in to see a work up close and read the title of the piece as well as the name, year and school of the artist.

The 2020 VISION art show can be viewed at bit.ly/U46-Vision. The exhibit opened May 13 and continues to June 30.

In addition, the District's elementary art teachers wanted to find a way to host their students' annual art show, as well. With more than 1,000 pieces of art chosen, the virtual show is divided alphabetically by school into three sections:

Bartlett Elementary through Heritage Elementary: bit.ly/ElementaryPart1

Highland Elementary through Nature Ridge Elementary: bit.ly/ElementaryPart2

Oakhill Elementary through Willard Elementary: bit.ly/ElementaryPart3