UMFA: 5 Blocks

Students have keen minds that absorb different modes of thinking, so when they’re challenged to investigate the world around them with an alternative lens, the results are often astute, in surprising ways. 5 Blocks is an exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts showcasing the work from students from Hawthorne Elementary School of the Salt Lake City School District, and Granger High School students from the Granite School District. In cooperation with educators from the UMFA, the students were challenged to observe a five-block area around their school and record, using various media, how their experience “demystified how we shape the spaces we live in and how those spaces shape us,” according to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

The results are fascinating. The students from Hawthorne Elementary recorded a tactile experience as they looked at their environment situated around Liberty Park. They documented sights, sounds, smells and sensations and spoke with local residents, and the result is a large-scale diorama of the area—with miniature houses, telephone poles, the park, the lake and the zoo—and a virtual walking tour that records some of their experiences.

The Granger High School students’ interpretation of their experience is entirely different. Their landscape is the busy commercial area of 3500 South, from their school (3600 West), to the Valley Fair Mall (2700 West). The students engaged in a critical investigation of demographics and urban development in their community. The findings are digital prints, wire sculpture (shown) and ceramics. According to Sheri Sohm, a fourth-grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary, “The culminating experience encouraged students to work together to create art that reflected what they learned and how they felt about their community.” (Ehren Clark)