Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher Museum 2006
April 1, 2006 - April 23, 2006
Amanda Bayley
Pants
Photograph
Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12
Art Teacher: Mary Ponte
Welcome to the tenth annual Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher student exhibition. This 3-week long exhibition of works by outstanding high school art students from throughout Long Island is the culmination of an exciting annual Arts-in-Education Initiative developed to encourage the use of the Museum as a rich resource in a high school student’s life. The Heckscher Museum of Art is dedicated to enriching the lives of students through making dynamic connections between works of art and valuable hands-on learning experiences. Our insightful School Discovery Program engages over 7,000 students from schools throughout Long Island each school year.
The Museum invites ninth through twelfth grade art students from every school district throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as private and parochial schools, to participate in this program annually. Schools are offered the option of attending one of our renowned School Discovery Programs (a two-hour long in-depth gallery tour, discussion, and hands-on art-making experience), sending students to the Museum on their own, or both. During these Museum visits, students are encouraged to make connections between the artwork on view and their own creative processes. In addition to their original works of art inspired by the Museum’s exhibitions, each participating student writes an artist’s statement explaining the connection between his or her original artwork and source(s) of inspiration at the Heckscher. Our Chief Curator, Dr. Kenneth Wayne juried this highly competitive exhibition.
This year, 40 high schools representing 31 school districts participated, 22 schools from Suffolk and 18 from Nassau counties. Additionally, students from various private schools across Long Island participated this year. New participants to the process this year included Division Avenue High School, Sayville High School, West Babylon High School and Knox School. Overall, there were more than 280 entries received with 80 selected for inclusion in the exhibition. This year was the inaugural year of The Heckscher-Usdan Student Art Institute and those students were also invited to participate in the process.
Exhibition Program
In 2006, 40 high schools participated in Long Island’s Best and 80 works of art were selected for the exhibition. See the complete list of all exhibiting artists, participating schools, and more, in the Exhibition Program below.
Opening Reception Photos
