A world united through art: tenth anniversary exhibition, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1994, Socorrito Diaz, an elementary art teacher at the Baldwin School of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, launched an ambitious international art collaboration. Networking with other educators who, like herself, were alumni of the National Gallery of Art's summer Teacher Institute, she came up with the idea of ah international-student art exchange. Each year, participating teachers select the best of their students' artwork and send it to that year's host site, where it is exhibited and enjoyed by children, school faculty, and parents alike.

This year's tenth anniversary exhibition was held, appropriately, where the project originated--in San Juan. Sixteen countries participated including Australia, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United States, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Tanzania, Mexico, and Thailand--the latter a long-time contributor sending consistently high-quality artwork, distinctive for its densely patterned and sophisticated decorative design.

Each annual exhibition has a theme. This year's focus on Art, Tradition, and Stories encouraged students to give visual expression to the myth, traditions, celebrations, and other unique features of their native lands. The young Thai artists all celebrated the flowers and butterflies indigenous to their country, giving their display a compelling thematic unity. Several Peruvian students sent lively pictures of couples dancing the Marinera, their traditional dance of courtship. Paintings from India were rich in religious and civic pageantry, including nine-year-old Navia Dayal's colorful parade of elephants from the annual Hindu festival of the Gods at Vadakkumnathan Temple, in Trichur, in southern India.

Each country's entries were given their own space in a beautifully restored nineteenth-century military barracks, in the northwest sector of Old San Juan. On opening night, student volunteers from Baldwin School interpreted the international entries--each dressed in the traditional costume of the country he of she represented. A Saturday family Day celebration featured storytelling and workshops on origami, Vejigante masks, drawing, painting, and monoprinting. Free food was enjoyed by all, and a few lucky students had their portraits sketched by native San Juan artist Antonio Martorell.

Given its international scope, this annual exhibition requires the energies of many. Several of its long-term members have hosted the annual display of student artwork, including Chris Roe of Adelaide, Australia; Debbie Corletto and Marie Meegan of Medford and Salem Massachusetts; Judy Ball Johnson from Shreveport, Louisiana; and Cindy Male of the Caribbean island of St. Croix. From the onset of the program, these tireless educators have seen this as an opportunity to celebrate their students' creativity while promoting international exchange and good will.

The program accomplishes two main goals: teachers stay in touch by exchanging art lessons and educational materials; and students make friends from foreign countries through the exchange of paintings. Some classes have strengthened their ties by letter writing. Others have used the Internet to make and maintain contact, learning more about each other's school lives and cultural traditions via cyberspace.

Exhilarated by what they have accomplished thus far, Ms. Diaz looks forward to welcoming new participants, noting, "We are sure that more will join in the years to come, with the purpose of making art an important part of our lives."

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories

WEB LINK

www.nga.gov/education/diaz.shtm

Julie Springer is coordinator. Teacher Pro grams, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. To become part of this program. or for further information on the program, contact Socorrito Diaz at [e-mail]