Exhibition Highlights The Pain Felt When A School Is Forced To Close
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new exhibition at Temple University's Tyler School of Art displays the pain a community feels when their school closes.
Titled, "reForm," the exhibition represents the aftermath of 31 closed Philadelphia public schools through the eyes of former students and teachers at Fairhill Elementary, a school closed in 2013.
"All the kids feel the school broke their family relations," Professor Pepon Osario said.
Osario created the exhibition. He took cubbies, lockers and books from Fairhill to create a classroom in the Basement of Tyler. Along one wall are video images with sound of students expressing their feeling of powerlessness. Along another wall, giant essays written by students detailing what it was like to watch their school shuttered.
"It's giving the students an opportunity to express their opinion," Osario says. "It goes beyond education itself. We're talking about socialization. We're talking about neighborhood responsibility, citizenship and all that."
The exhibition will double as a classroom and community work space. It will remain open through December.
You can find more information on the exhibition at http://reform-project.org/.
