Look What's "Hop"penning: Mississippi Museum of Art

The next stop on our field trip was to the Mississippi Museum of Art. We were very excited about this part! All the Jackson Public Schools involved in this residency program showcased their work throughout the museum.

Immediately upon walking upstairs into the museum, we were struck by all the plaques in the center gallery. These plaques stated the name of each school's project along with the names of teachers and others who helped facilitate the project. Our school's project? Guys and Dolls Take the Stage with New Stage. We crowded around to take a peek. Can you see Mrs. Johnson's name?

We then followed Mrs. Johnson from gallery to gallery studying each project's presentations. There was such a variety of activities, art, and projects! We loved it! Some of us even found our friends' work from other schools.

Dawson Elementary School made their own instruments.

McCleod studied photography. Antasia, Sherrina, and Mrs. Thompson loved those photos!

Another school must have studied the culinary arts, or cooking. There were several recipes and menus posted on the wall along with this Mr. Gallon Man!

Charles was excited about that!

McWillie Elementary created a model of their school! Upon exploring their cardboard building, we realized their school looks just like ours!

Look familiar? They also had work and pictures in a scrapbook on the table.

Boyd Elementary

Kristin takes a closer look at Boyd's colorful neighborhood.

These photographs were interesting. The child was in color while the background was black and white.

As we made our way through the galleries, we soon realized that Mrs. Land and Mrs. Williams have been working EXTRA hard on our exhibit! It was fabulous!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking up your Saturday to prepare such an outstanding and LARGE exhibit! You have made our school proud!

Just look at the size of that exhibit! This was the largest one that we saw.

One new fact we learned about Mrs. Land is that she used to make Cabbage Patch dolls! Did you know that?! She's famous, I tell ya! So, she used her talents to create an Uncle Jed character to display with our exhibit. Some of our students actually helped to make Uncle Jed's hair.

Charles, Uncle Jed, Selicia, Kenyada, Jordan, D'Aubriney, and Jendaya
Some of us look a little scared! Ha!

After each rehearsal or meeting with New Stage, we came back to the classrooms and wrote about our experience. All of our journal entries are compiled in a journal and displayed for others to read. I sure am glad Mrs. Johnson worked our writing skills this year, so we wouldn't be too embarrassed!

Sha'Erykah and Nacolby take a look.

Mrs. Johnson took TONS of pictures throughout our time with New Stage Theater. Mrs. Land took several too, I think. Many of these pictures are compiled on this display of our "Cast." Each class also has their own picture with New Stage displayed in the exhibit. It was so fun looking for each other and seeing all the work displayed proudly.

Did you find a picture of yourself?

Mrs. Johnson's class in front of our exhibit

What could be better? Well, I'll tell you! Our production was playing on a television near our exhibit! We all gathered around the TV to watch.

We didn't even realize we were being taped!

While we watched our video, Mrs. Johnson sneaked over to the exhibit and took pictures without students blocking her view.

Our journals on a picnic table from Talk About a Family

Uncle Jed's Barbershop display
Do you see the scenery our production staff drew?

Talk About a Family display
The scenery came from the play, and we created it all!

The cast

The first thing James saw was his picture! He was doing a warm-up exercise, and it is a hilarious picture!

You may think things couldn't get any better! But they did! A few of our very own students were interviewed about their experience with New Stage Theater in this Ask 4 More Arts residency. Mrs. Johnson missed Sherrina's interview, but she was able to catch the rest. Take a minute to watch each interview and hear what we had to say about our experience.

Nadia was first...

Then Charles...

...and Sabbion went last.

After interviews and autographs... Just kidding! No one asked for our autographs, but we felt like stars for a little while. After seeing all the hard work that our teachers and ourselves did, we continued on our tour of the museum. We saw the rest of the schools' projects.

Artwork from cutout shapes

More instruments made by students

These portraits were wonderful! The students wrote poems about themselves and presented it in this artful display.

These abstract paintings are so bright and cheery! Mrs. Johnson had just told Sherrina which painting looked like her! Ha ha! I think Sherrina was finding one for Mrs. Johnson in return!

This exhibit was neat! On a display much like Candy Land, each piece of artwork told an old Native American story. Mrs. Land explained the details.

Kristin, Lyric, Sharnecia, Arrion, and Selicia liked this dragon creation.

One of our favorite projects of the day was the rap songs. Two schools wrote, performed, and recorded their own raps! The words were posted, so we could sing along.

Take a listen:

There is NO WAY to show you all the wonderful projects presented in the Mississippi Museum of Art! In fact, we haven't even mentioned the exquisite art posted all along the stairs and landing as we went up to the galleries. These postings were created by students at APAC. We found some of our former students' work among them. You should really take an afternoon to visit yourself and see the many art projects and exhibits created and performed by JPS students. The exhibit should be up for a couple more weeks.

After a busy day, we all sat around outside the museum to eat our sack lunches and rest. It was a beautiful day for a field trip!