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)

Visitor comments from IWWL: Three Communities in Focus

"Excellent artwork! I was moved, as a DC resident, seeing the different side to the neighborhoods. I hope they keep up with photography and poety."

"One of the most amazing kids' programs and exhibits I've ever seen! Great photography."

"Great photos, especialy Petworth Pine" and "Old & Withered". "Greenhouse Effect" - very interesting composition. Talented youth - you are the future!"

"Thanks to NBM & participants. I dropped in to see the lego exhibit but it was sold out. Fortunately, I got more than I bargained for by coming into the 2010 IWWL exhibit. GREAT perspective on our city. What incredible talent & creative eyes, ears, and hands for our benefit."

"Excellent! Talented Kids! Their eyes see DC. They're minds see an even better DC. May their hands and hearts make a better DC."

"As a photographer and someone who has enjoyed teaching children, especially about the environment, I find this exhibit inspiring."

"I swear my eyes are watering right now. This is an awesome project! The artistry of these kids is fantastic! Please keep this project up."

"My 3 kids and I love this exhibit. Seeing these neighborhoods through the eyes of other children. These communities are very different from our community yet the children have so much in common. Love the beauty..."

Looking back and looking forward

Reading my colleagues’ latest entries, everyone is amazed at how quickly the summer has passed. My reaction is no different. July is always such a whirlwind, but each year I turn around and the participants have produced another great, innovative, creative show.


This year the Trinidad team had to endure a long journey even to get to our neighborhood. We took the Metro and walked 20 minutes each way; we took the X2 bus and were crammed up against strangers; we even took school bus that broke down on our way back to the Museum. We did all this in order to accurately document and understand the neighborhood and talk to the residents in it. Everyone was a trooper as we trudged through the heat and humidity, and I appreciate their dedication!

The exhibit brainstorming and planning process, which is always a long process, went really well. All of the students had strengths that added to the final product. Cynthia and Josephine made some amazing mural paintings on our wall. Al’Asia and Bryant produced some fantastic writings. Malik and Kareem used their collage and interview skills to produce a neat station about our journey to and from Trinidad. Lindsey. Arianna, and Cierra used their steady hands to help cut photos for the interactive, and mattes for the photos and writings. Zac and Keenan painstakingly represented some of the buildings in Trinidad through models for our 3D map. Everyone functioned as a team and created a great exhibit.

I always look back fondly and a little sadly at the time in IWWL. It is crazy and busy, and it leaves you no time to rest, but it creates such a wonderful sense of camaraderie and friendship that I am sad to see go. Fortunately I am in the position to experience this program each summer. We can never recreate the same experience year to year, but each one stands alone, a unique and special moment in time.

Thanks again to all the participants, Team Leaders, and volunteers. You did a fantastic job!

Is It Really the End?

It's weird to think that IWWL has ended for the summer. The exhibit though, is up in the gallery and will be running until mid January. Three Communities in Focus has drawn so many visitors that we even needed to place a gallery attendant in the gallery space! It was great to experience the exhibition opening this past Friday with a large crowd consisting of family and friends of our participants and even community members.

IWWL has been such a great experience for me. I was able to meet such a variety of people from NBM staff members, volunteers, local photographers, and our teens. I learned a lot about communication and leadership while working with my neighborhood group. To think that in 12 days, as a group, we explored, brainstormed, designed, and created the amazing exhibit that exists today. There were some challenging moments, but in the end I am so proud of our accomplishments! I am also grateful to know more about D.C. and it's unique neighborhoods. I've become more curious about my surroundings and find myself exploring areas I wouldn't necessarily have prior to my time in IWWL.

I encourage everyone to visit the exhibit or even our facebook and flickr page if you aren't near by.