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LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Lakewood High School art teacher Autumn Sabin said she jumped at the chance to help 13 students participate in the extracurricular Cleveland Museum of Art Teen Summit program.
“One of the biggest reasons we wanted to join was (that) the program has legitimacy,” Sabin said. “Three different times this year, the students attended the museum to learn about the operation of nonprofits.
“The students’ big culminating task is taking works from the Cleveland Museum of Art collection and designing their own gallery.”
The Lakewood students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, will be celebrating the end of the program on March 15 with a party and exhibition of 3-D gallery boxes.
Hainal Eppley, Cleveland Museum of Art department director of gallery teaching and teen programs, said participation in Teen Summit varies between 50 and 100 students per semester.
“Students who participate in Teen Summit learn more about how museums work and the processes that happen behind the scenes to make an exhibition come to life,” Eppley said. “Through the creation and final product of a miniature 3-D exhibition, students in Teen Summit will go through a full design process in which they learn how to generate, prototype and present ideas.
“Teen Summit connects students from various Northeast Ohio schools with art and with each other. Through activities designed to prepare students for the world beyond the classroom, Summit teens build communication, teamwork and creative problem-solving skills.”
In addition to learning more about nonprofit management, Sabin said what makes the Teen Summit so unique is its career-oriented approach, which ultimately has very little to do with art.
In January, the students met representatives from every department in the art museum. This included carpenters who package artwork to be shipped around the world to event coordinators.
“My hope is to get them exposure to different careers,” Sabin said. “So many kids have no idea what they want to do, so to just show them these different paths is special. The Cleveland Museum of Art is like second to none. It’s a local treasure.”
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