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Donate now to the Spring Member Drive. Every yen counts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Visitors to the halls of the Portland Art Museum this summer will notice an exhibit of extraordinary versatility, displaying everything from Martian screen-printed T-shirts to a series of “super awesome zines.” duck details<\/i>.<\/p>\n More than 100 works in the museum’s HeART of Portland Visual Arts exhibit were created by local artists and Portland Public Schools students. The museum has at least one piece of art created in every conceivable medium from each of PPS’s 81 schools on display through September. (Think pottery, collage, rug tufting, just to name a few.) <\/p>\n This exhibit is just one part of HeART of Portland, an annual event highlighting the diverse talents of PPS students across the arts disciplines. This year’s exhibition started on April 15th.<\/p>\n Does that date sound familiar? HeART of Portland was first created in 2015 as a way to show the public where Portland arts tax funds are being spent. It’s just a “coincidence” that this year’s show opened on Tax Day, said Kristen Brayson, director of visual and performing arts at PPS. But it’s meant to appear this season to show taxpayers that arts education and access is happening in Portland schools. <\/p>\n “Our hope is that over time, people will actually understand that this isn’t just happening in the abstract somewhere in a classroom,” she says. \u201cStudents are learning coursework\u2026and you can see that reflected in their performances and the resulting exhibits.\u201d <\/p>\n The opening night featured a performing arts showcase themed “Windows of Our Future.” <\/p>\n Here’s an example of how that theme was applied. Kenzo, a third-year student in Grant High School’s student dance program, said the primarily student-led program focused on choreography that provided insight into the dancers’ future. \u201cA lot of us go to college and do dance in college,\u201d he says. \u201cMany of us are looking out the window to see what happens next.\u201d <\/p>\n The 2026 performance celebrated a notable milestone. Students who were kindergarteners when the arts tax began are now high school seniors, and the Class of 2026 will be the first students to receive continuing arts education at PPS. <\/p>\n Since 2013, all Portland residents have been asked to pay $35 annually to fund arts education and arts organizations. The tax raised approximately $146 million over 10 years. The arts tax funds one arts educator in each K-12 school, and PPS keeps students on track through middle and high school.<\/p>\n Thanks to additional space from a recent expansion, this year for the first time PPS student work will be on display at the museum for several months. <\/p>\n In past years, students’ work has been on display for about two weeks and not shown at the main Portland Art Museum building due to space constraints, Brayson said. But this year, PAM’s director of youth and educator programs, Hannah Leyson, said student art needs to be treated the same as all other artists displayed in museums. (Students can also write labels to accompany their work.) <\/p>\n “The museum didn’t have a suitable space to display student work, so we used the event space in the Mark building. The teachers always did a great job.” [displaying student art]we will be hanging the artwork on a grid provided by PPS,\u201d says Rayson. <\/p>\n “But this year it was displayed in a proper gallery. The collections team at the Portland Art Museum, which installs all the pieces, was able to install it, so it received the same love and care that all the exhibits at the museum receive.” <\/p>\n Brayson said the district is also working to instill collaboration between schools with many performances at HeART in Portland. Rayson said a large glass panel in the museum’s gallery displays a colorful collage of work from each classroom in the district.<\/p>\n On the performance side, collaborations take place in the form of elementary school honors choirs and K-12 honors dance troupes, which bring together talented students from across the district to learn from each other and build special performances. <\/p>\n Winnie, a senior at Grant University who also participates in the dance program, was selected to be a member of the Honors Dance Group. <\/p>\n \u201cWith the honors dance troupe here, it feels like it\u2019s all about community and connection,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were so many moments where I collaborated with other students to create choreography, which was really special.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n