Celebrating 33 participants, this was our largest Faculty & Staff Art Show to date! About a third of our featured artists participated for the very first time, sharing everything from paintings and photography to fabric art, crochet and stained glass. Thank you to everyone who contributed—may this show continue to inspire the artist in each of us.

Inspired by Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York, Joy Lai, chair of the Visual Arts and Design Department, had long wanted her photography students to create a similar project celebrating the Penn Charter community. This March, that vision became People of PC.

Studying works by photographers like Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems and Irving Penn, students learned about pose, angle and background before each chose a PC teacher or staff member to photograph and interview. "The goal was to celebrate the people who make up the school while highlighting meaningful personal connections," Lai said. Students created black-and-white portraits layered with colorful artistic designs of their own.

Freshman Sophie Wilmerding photographed Shelby Tucker, a Middle School teacher and her former lacrosse coach. Tucker told her that watching students grow over the years—rather than losing touch after Middle School—was her favorite part of teaching at PC. Sophie set the portrait against the "Joy in Community" banner with purple accents, "because it feels like her vibe."

Sophomore Bridget Elliott photographed frequent substitute teacher Yola Nakchbandi, learning about her past teaching at a military school in the UAE. "She really loves being a part of Penn Charter, and the community loves her," Bridget said, choosing warm accent colors to match Nakchbandi's personality.

Students found the project offered a new way to connect with teachers—and a deeper understanding of the people behind the PC community.

On Stuffie Hospital Day, pre-K, kindergarten and first grade students were invited to bring their “injured” stuffed animals to school for necessary surgical repair. The "doctors" held sessions on two different days in the Lower School Studio—one led by parents and the other by upper schoolers. Dressed in white coats or scrubs, the stuffie doctors asked for patient history, diagnosed various rips and tears, and then sewed up their fuzzy patients. Students were then given discharge instructions for their stuffies with details for at-home recovery.

Brooke Giles, Lower School studio arts teacher, has been a stuffie doctor for her pre-K students for years and felt there was an opportunity to expand her “medical practice.” "I love showing the students that the sewing skills we learn in the Studio are life skills, too,” she said. “Last year I had a lot of requests to fix stuffed animals, so I decided to make it a day. One of my students, now in kindergarten, even designed me a logo.”   

The success of the scheduled clinic day prompted Giles to talk to visual and performing arts teacher EvaKay Noone about how her Upper School costume design students could help. “EvaKay, of course, also leaned into the dramatic play of it!” Giles said. 

"It was really fun to be back in the Lower School and see all of my old teachers," said sophomore Gemma Kohles. "The stuffie hospital was such a great idea to connect upper schoolers with lower schoolers. It really brightened my day, and I hope I will have another opportunity to do this again in the future."

Giles wants to make Stuffie Hospital Day bigger and better next year. "I have more ideas for next year, including a few service aspects,” she said. “Just one of the things that the new Lower School building is making possible in expanding the reach of the Studio program." 

On Friends Multicultural Day, Upper School students get to share their passions with their fellow students, creating presentations on topics of their choice. Slam poetry champion Andre Bradford kicked off the day as the keynote speaker, performing several of his poems themed on "purposeful empathy."

This year featured 34 incredible student-led presentations on topics such as:
 

"K-pop 101, featuring Stray Kids"
"AI and Learning: Risks, Realities, and Choices"
"Reproductive Justice: Consent and Choice"
"Theatre for Social Change"
"Spaces for Peace: The Power of Gardens"

And many more!

We're grateful to all the students, faculty and staff who made this possible.

For more photos of the day, check out our Flickr album. 
 

From large-scale murals to tiny hand-drawn books called mini-zines, visiting artist Cindy Lozito shared her work with first and fourth grade students during Hispanic Heritage month in November. 

Lozito inspired students to find their artistic voice through color palette, style and subject. “Every image is a story,” she told them, and when she paints a mural, she thinks to herself, “I can tell a big story to anybody who passes by and sees this.” 

Lozito recently created a mural, in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia, inside Vetri Community Partner’s headquarters in the city’s West Poplar neighborhood. Titled “Recipe for Community,” the mural tells “a simple story about cooking food” that conveys community, belonging, joy and comfort, Lozito said. 

She shared her process with students: First, she created the artwork digitally, then projected it onto the wall and, using scaffolding, sketched the image before painting the vibrant colors. And she didn’t do it alone; she worked with an assistant and others who prepped the space. “It’s so much better making a mural with other people,” she said. 

When visiting with first grade Spanish students, Lozito taught them the traditional art of painting on fabric, which reminds her of her grandmother and her home in Puerto Rico. Students used oil pastels and squares of felt to create their own illustrations. 

Lozito gave fourth grade art students a more complex assignment: Create an eight-page mini-zine from one piece of folded paper that tells the story of something important to you. Lozito shared one that she had created about her versatile autumn wardrobe. Drawing with colored pencils, students spotlighted their pets, gymnastics, their name story and much more.