The story of this month-long exhibit at a Maine middle school, during March 2025, begins with the students’ community fundraising effort. They reached out to residents, organizations and businesses in their small town to raise the money to bring nine AWTT portraits to their school. Watch this short YouTube video to see one of the social media posts they created to put their Venmo fund over the top.

The students were supported in their efforts by a four-member multi-disciplinary faculty team, Caitlin Hutt, Patty Ryan, Samantha Maheu, and Kathie Gass. The exhibit was the first of what AWTT hopes will become a popular model for bringing their programs into schools – the “Partnership Project.” AWTT provides schools with ideas and blueprints for fund-raising in their communities.  The folks at Troy Howard organized a two-pronged approach, attracting some major institutional donations but primarily small gifts from individuals.

During the month, teachers and students made the most of their portrait-hosting opportunity -incorporating portraits and portrait-related stories into curriculum in science, language arts, social studies, art and special education classes. Here is a partial list of activities.

• • Eighth graders presented the AWTT portraits to Ames School fifth grade students. Watch short video of this student-led lesson. Two classes of students from another local elementary school enjoyed similar  lessons led by middle-schoolers.

• • Story-telling partner Narrative 4 – collaborating with AWTT staff member Connie Carter – led a two-day activity around personal story telling. The first day prepared students for the story exchange. On the second day, students shared stories in dyads, based on prompts derived from the narratives of AWTT portrait subjects. Students reflected that sometimes it was difficult to share someone else’s story but that doing that gave them an understanding of “walking in someone else’s shoes.” Students ended the story exchange by encouraging their partners with a simple wish: “My hope for you is…”

• • Fifty eighth-grade students spoke in front of a full cafeteria of sixth graders and seventh graders about the portraits. Their teachers reported, “These eighth graders raised the bar for themselves, spoke with confidence, and told their peers about the people in paintings. Students spoke about the social justice issues that each person is known for, and why their work is important. Speaking in front of a full room of more than 100 people is a major challenge for most people, but students met this challenge head on. . . . Many students have shown tremendous personal growth with the learning and experiences that are taking place. We are overwhelmed with pride, and grateful to be their teachers.”

• • The month ended with an evening “Community Presentation and Celebration,” where students shared their learning experiences around the portraits with the greater community.

Teacher Caitlin Hutt offered this enthusiastic review of the month’s activities: “The AWTT school partnership program created amazing opportunities for our students and our community to experience the power of art and changemaking. Our 8th grade students took pride in being the curators of these beautiful portraits, becoming experts on the art and the portrait subjects in order to share their learning and encourage others to learn as well. As the portraits were displayed throughout our school, they became a talking piece that brought hope and positivity to both students and staff. The AWTT school partnership program brought our school and community together many times throughout the month and showed us the power of connecting with one another and of being a courageous citizen!”

Troy Howard students have participated for several years in AWTT’s Samantha Smith Challenge. After spending a month with the portraits, they are more enthused than ever to join in this year’s Challenge.