Focus on Youth

Rachel Doyle, Self Portrait. La Cueva High School. Top right: A'Janae Reed, Popping Time, Manzano High School. Bottom right: Maya Daly, Iris, Sandia High School.

A LONG-TIME PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM AND ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC

SCHOOLS pivots this year to the online format. Focus on Youth, a digital media exhibition of works by APS high school students, launches on the APS and Museum websites in May. It’s a community effort and cornerstone of the Museum’s support of young artists.

This year’s online version shares the studentphotographers’ work with a broader audience. Another change this year is that the APS art teachers will be jurying the show, and some submissions may appear in both the Metro District-wide Art Exhibition and Focus on Youth. Entries include digital media from cell phones, DSLR cameras, video, and even drone photography. Another pandemic-related impact is that many students didn’t have access to APS-supplied DSLR cameras, so many images have been shot using cell phones.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year's reception will also be virtual, yet organizers hope that 2022’s Focus on Youth will be back in the gallery as well as online. Cinamon Gentry, art resource teacher, coordinates the show with Perry Heimer, digital resource teacher. Gentry participated in Focus on Youth when she was a student.

In the past, students had the learning opportunity to work alongside Fine Arts teachers to mat and frame images and prepare them for installation at the Museum. While this chance to learn hands-on is missing this year, the virtual nature of 2021’s Focus on Youth reflects changes in how art is viewed that will extend beyond the pandemic.

ON VIEW

FOCUS ON YOUTH

Opening May 8, 2021 Visit online:

cabq.gov/FOY