Art Students Invite Elders to Participate in Oral History Project

Art students at Amherst Regional High School (ARHS) are inviting Amherst area elders to to participate in a local oral history project. The students coordinating the project are enrolled  in Black & White Photography or Watercolor Painting classes at the high school.

The project will bring students and elders together in the ARHS library on Friday December 12 where they will work in small groups in conversations focusing initially on the elders’ memories of their experiences in high school, though it is expected that conversations will travel in many different directions as students and elders find commonalities. During the conversations, painting students will sketch and take notes.  Photography students will make portraits of the elders, to be developed in the darkroom. Painting students will create a piece inspired by the content of the conversations. 

This project will culminate in an art show open to the greater community featuring pairings of photographic portraits and paintings.  

Elders in the community who would like to participate can sign up here. The registration deadline is December 1. Students in the project will send a confirmation email, and then a reminder email the day before.  This email will include details about the day of, including directions to the ARHS library. 

Participants in the project  consent to their  photograph and the stories they share being used in a public display,

Questions can be directed to ARHS art teacher Kristen Ripley  at. ripleyk@arps.org  

This project is sponsored by the Amherst Area Education Foundation