Featured Story

Spanish Students Create Latinx Gallery to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Carrie Meatto, Upper School Spanish Teacher
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Spanish III students created a Latinx art and music gallery to share and engage with the greater SLS community.

Students began by taking a live virtual tour of El Museo del Barrio’s “La Trienal” exhibit, which features Latinx contemporary art by over 40 artists from across the United States and Puerto Rico. Through the tour, students explored the current Latinx art landscape and examined the messages behind the work. The students then explored databases of Latinx art and selected pieces that evoked a special connection or message.

To display their curated collection, students created a gallery in the St. Luke’s library that highlighted the diversity of mediums and messages in work by Latinx artists. It also featured students' original artwork representing issues that matter to them. To entice passersby to explore the gallery, students created a custom playlist of music by Latinx artists and delivered personal invitations in Spanish to native Spanish speakers and Spanish language learners in our community. They also provided one-on-one gallery tours, explaining the value of representing Latinx artists, the history and messages behind their chosen works of art, and what they learned throughout the project. Student writing accompanied each work of art, so visitors could peruse the space at their own pace in the days surrounding the close of Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Students who participated in the project shared the following:
  • “The most interesting part of this project for me was learning the stories behind everyone's selected artwork and songs. A lot of the meanings behind the art and music were very deep or told a story, which gave me some insight into Latinx culture.”
  • “While working on this project, I learned a lot about Latinx cultures and experiences that offered a new perspective on aspects of my life that I would not have seen before. I learned about the stereotypes Latinx people face in the art world, and how stereotypes lead to under-representation, and the loss of Latinx stories.”
  • “I learned about different Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx cultures, and the perspective of artists from each ethnicity. I learned about art, the many different stories behind each artist, and why they chose to create the art they did.”

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St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.