Home Education and Careers Serviam Girls Academy students express feelings at art exhibit: Photo gallery

Serviam Girls Academy students express feelings at art exhibit: Photo gallery

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WILMINGTON — During the month of June, fifth- and sixth-grade students at Serviam Academy for Girls are speaking through their art at “Through Our Eyes — A Student Retrospective and Showcase.” The exhibit is on display at Grace United Methodist Church in Wilmington, where the school took up residence last year.

The opening reception took place June 4, with food trucks on site. Inside, artwork reflecting the students’ thoughts and beliefs hung on the walls of the lobby. According to the school, English language arts teacher Jade Thomas worked with the girls to allow them to express how they see the world in an unfiltered manner. They created the works throughout March.

“Each student expressed a rich tapestry of emotions through the incredible depth of their creativity,” reads a sign at the exhibit.

One of the sixth-graders, Ja’Khayla Wise, entered three pieces in the show. She enjoys the freedom art gives her.

“I was always a nervous person, but when I got into art, I knew how to express my feelings through the art,” she said.

One of her pieces was about COVID-19. She wanted to show how the pandemic had affected people’s feelings. It shows poison, a syringe and a dying rose. The poison is the coronavirus, the syringe represents the vaccine, and the rose is for those people whose hope is slipping away, not knowing if they will get sick or if they will see loved ones again.

“It was really saw how millions — not thousands, not hundreds of thousands — millions were dying from one sickness,” Ja’Khayla said.

She said there are a lot of artists in her classroom. “My friend group, we draw all the time, when we said we had a project to do, I was very psyched.”

All photos by Mike Lang.