Iacocca Hallways Showcase Local K-12 Artists

For Liz Sims, a doctoral student in the COE's Educational Leadership program, the blank walls of Iacocca Hall provided inspiration. Sims, who teaches art full-time at Valley Forge Elementary, recognized an opportunity to bridge the gap between the COE’s graduate training and the creative energy of local K-12 classrooms.

The idea for a K-12 Art Exhibition started with a single door. When Dr. Craig Hochbein invited Sims to display some of her students' work outside his office, he sparked Sims' imagination. "I came back a few months later with a proposal to fill the entire hallway." 

Her idea, met with enthusiastic support from Dean Robin Hojnoski, led to a college-wide installation. The exhibition now winds through two floors, turning once bleak hallways into a celebration of local K-12 artists.

"As a doctoral student myself, I wanted to include other grad students and their schools. Dr. Hojnoski agreed, so we chose the inaugural group of participants specifically to support the arts in COE graduate students' districts," Sims said. It is Sims' hope that current and future teachers enrolled in the COE's programs will be inspired—not just by the work, but what the work represents. And when current COE students land in their post-graduate school districts, her hope is they'll want to be part of future exhibitions. 

"I hope this is just the beginning," Sims said. "I want to see this grow each year, featuring more schools and more of the remarkable things students create when given the chance."

You can take a virtual tour of the exhibition at https://youtu.be/e5HaVL4ugQE.