Staff Reports | Happenings & Events
Scottsdale Arts has opened “Visions ’26,” a new exhibition showcasing work by Valley high school students at the Center Space gallery inside Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.
The exhibition is the culmination of a yearlong mentorship program that pairs young creatives with professional Arizona-based artists. Visions is an invitational visual arts program for advanced students from six Valley high schools and is one of the longest-running museum teen art programs in the country, according to a press release.
Throughout the year, students worked with 13 teaching artists, along with staff and faculty from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Paradise Valley Community College. Instruction focused on skills in painting, multimedia and sculpture.
This year, 40 students participated in the Visions program. Among them is Emily Pye, a senior at Pinnacle High School, who created a mixed-media piece titled “Le Stagioni.” The work explores Ms. Pye’s Italian heritage through her interpretation of four-season plates commonly found in Italian homes.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” Ms. Pye said. “I’ve always associated these plates with the central part of my memories with my family, our home and just being together. After I graduate, my family will be moving. I’m obviously going to college, but we’re selling that house and moving to California, and it’s bittersweet. I’m leaving the home that I grew up in.”
In addition to developing artistic technique, the Visions program encourages students nearing high school graduation to reflect on their experiences and consider their next steps.
Ilana Belogorodsky, also a senior at Pinnacle High School and a returning Visions student, contributed an oil painting titled “Refracted.” Ms. Belogorodsky said she challenged herself to create a stained-glass-like composition to represent different emotions from her childhood.
“I’ve prioritized my family this year and tried to reflect more on them because I’m realizing that I’m going to be my own person,” Ms. Belogorodsky said. “I’ve never been fond of doing self-portraits, but I feel like I’ve been drawn to it because I’m moving away from childhood.”
Ms. Belogorodsky and Ms. Pye are among the 26 Visions students graduating from high school this year. Organizers said the program supports students not only in developing artistic expertise, but also in building skills such as communication, time management and problem solving.
“Visions has given me the confidence to interact in a professional sphere of art,” Ms. Pye said. “I subscribe to the idea that the first time you do anything will always be the hardest. Now that I’ve done the program twice, I know everything else is going to be a million times easier. I’ve done this before; I can do it again.”
