Visitor Comments from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus (Mid November Update)

"Wonderful photographs - great job conveying the spirit of the three communities!"

"My second time at the exhibit - still just as wonderful as two months ago!"

"Great! Tebrikler!" - visitor from Turkey

"I think everything done here is amazing and I wish there were more activities in the community for all the children to do things just like this to learn and to have fun."

"I am a resident of Trinidad. I was blown away with the projects created by the students. Magnificent work!"

"Excellent exhibit - wonderful work with middle school youth and great insights into community."

Visitor Comments from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus (End of October Update)

"Wonderful exhibit! The pride and artistic excitement is so apparent on each young person's face.  Thrilling!"

"Inspiring - the young voice of these kids, their curiosity, kindness, warms my heart."

"I love the crab!" - editor of the Southwester

"Congratulations to all involved in this project. Students, you did a wonderful job! Teachers, you did too.  Thank you for sharing your experience and talents."

"Really creative collaboration & unique design. Keep it up!"

"Great job! You are inspiring a citizen/artist/educator from San Francisco!"

"Great exhibit that reflects a lot of creativity and hard work! What a great way to highlight the neat elements in these neighborhoods. Well done!"

Visitor Comments from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus (Mid October Update)

"Great! I did this program during the summer of 2001. It has improved a lot since then but still brings back great memories! At that time all we had was a posterboard in the hallway - now a whole exhibit! Congrats!"

"The green city grid backdrop is fabulous! I like how it extends onto the floor. Tape art! I also want a decoupage crab for my apartment."

"Great project! I will take this idea back to Los Angeles. So important to learn and to look!"

"Looks like a great experience for the students at many levels - photography, teamwork, neighborhood exposure, creating the exhibit, and proudly displaying their end product."

"Wonderful, explore more the city!"

"Very good! This is enchanting. I learned a lot about neighborhoods in DC I had not visited. Thanks!"

"It was really inspiring to come back to see all the hard work that my son and his teammates put in this summer come to life."

Visitor comments from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus! (End of Sept Update)

"The Riverfront approves!!"

"I visit this exhibit each year and I love seeing my city through the eyes of our young people. When my daughter is older, I would want her to participate in this program."

"I am proud that these students have learned the lessons of community and how to be great photographers."

"I live in SW DC and was pleasantly surprised to find an exhibit on my neighborhood. Nicely done!"

"This is most inspirational exhibit I've seen on my visit to DC. Thank you to the creators - the students." -visitor from Florida. 

"As a retired teacher from Baltimore, I love this exhibit!! What these children learned! And what talent they brought!"

"Thank you for showing me these three great neighborhoods of DC. We love them and will go looking for them."

"Great exhibition which shows Washington from a very different view from what tourists like me see usually. Thanks for this project." - visitor from Germany.

"We really enjoyed seeing this exhibition. I teach built environment at a high school in Sydney, Australia and do a walk through of neighborhoods with kids. Great display! Love all the details!" - visitor from Australia.

"Every school should do a project like this one!"

Parkview neighborhood

One of the (many) great things about Investigsting Where We Live is that we often receive feedback and additional information about our neighborhoods from people in the city. We have people who write stories and additional facts in the guest book. People call us to give more information or send us emails. That connection to the communities is something that we really love, and continue to encourage. For example, once the exhibit comes down from the walls in the National Building Museum, we work with community members in each neighborhood to find a place to hang the photos so that they travel back to that community. We like that the process circles back around to the people who welcomed us in the first place.

Visitor comments & sketches from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus! (Mid-September Update)

"I am so impressed with the care you took to really examine these three areas around DC. You each showed a great "eye" for life in your photographs and descriptions of each view. And, to think, at your ages, you've had an art exhibit in a major museum!"

"Really cool, I can tell it took a lot of hard work to put this awesome exhibit together - be proud of yourselves." (visitor from San Francisco)

"I visit this exhibit each year and I love seeing my city through the eyes of our young people. When my daughter is older, I would want her to participate in this program. Congrats to teens & staff!"

"I am impressed with the displays showing diversity, acceptance, pride, and beauty of these communities."

"This was a great show; sometimes stunning in the poetry & photography. The show gives me great hope for the future for these young people and their neighborhoods." (visitor from San Francisco)

"Thanks! I live across the river in Arlington and enjoyed learning more about DC communities."

"This is one of the more amazing kid driven exhibits I've seen. Just goes to show there is such beauty in every part of DC."

Visitor comments & sketches from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus!

"The images, captions, and poetry blew me away. I am incredibly impressed with all efforts which went into this project! I hope more projects like this will go on in the future. Continue to capture the essence of our city and you will continue to make it a beautiful place to call home."

"Exhibition on Petworth is timely and accurate. A general need of preserving affordable housing not just there but nation/world wide."

"A thoroughly inspiring show. Thank you for putting an idea in my mind for the small town where I live."

"This was really a interesting and very well done exhibit. The project was a great idea & the kids did terrific things - some cool pictures and mixed media deserve to stay here for good!"

"What a great exhibit! I love that the young people involved created an intrinsically multimedia experience that includes film, art, sound, and photography - and combined it all so seamlessly. It creates a larger metaphor that truly shows the importance of place."

"What a great exhibit! I used to live in Petworth so it was interesting to see another take on it!"

"This is excellent! The tree makes me want to make a family tree or scrapbook tree of vacations on the stairway wall at home to liven it up! Great job on the crab too!"
 
"This is a good way to learn about DC neighborhoods!"

"Job well done. You all put your heart and soul into it and made something beautiful, it shows."

"This looks absolutely amazing! The models and multimedia are so impressive this year. It really looks like you all had a lot of fun!" (from a 2008 IWWL intern)