ROCKLAND — The Farnsworth Art Museum will celebrate the opening of the Arts@theIntersection Student Exhibition with a free community celebration on Friday, June 5, from 5 to 7 p.m., as part of First Fridays at the Farnsworth.

Showcasing artwork by four classrooms across four Maine school districts, the exhibition represents a year-long journey of creative collaboration among students, the museum, artists, educators, and community partners.

The evening will include free admission, student artwork on view in the Craig Gallery, artmaking and games in the Sculpture Garden, refreshments, and a short film about the program in the museum’s auditorium.

A student and artist preview will begin at 4 p.m. for Arts@theIntersection students, teachers, participants, and their guests. The exhibition will open to the public at 5 p.m., followed by welcome remarks and celebrations at 5:30 p.m.

“Arts@theIntersection reflects the Farnsworth’s deep commitment to making the museum a place where young people can see themselves, share their ideas, and take part in shaping the cultural life of our community,” said Chris Brownawell, director of the Farnsworth Art Museum, in a news release. “In 2025, nearly 7,000 students participated in free educational programming at the Farnsworth, and since 2012, we have invested more than $3.5 million in educational initiatives. This exhibition is a powerful reminder of what happens when students are invited not only to learn from art, but to create, collaborate, and lead.”

Arts@theIntersection is a year-round, student-led arts integration program that brings young people into the museum as active producers of knowledge. The program engages students in grades 5 through 12 through arts-integrated workshops, collaborative projects, and partnerships with local artists and community organizations. Each year, the program culminates in an end-of-year exhibition in the museum’s Learning & Engagement Gallery that showcases student-created work alongside documentation of their creative and collaborative process.

“Arts@theIntersection positions young people not simply as visitors to the museum, but as collaborators shaping the questions, conversations, and experiences that take place within it,” said Alexis Saba, Senior Manager of Academic Programs. “The program creates space for students to explore complex ideas through creative practice while recognizing that their voices and lived experiences belong in spaces like this. The result is work that is thoughtful, challenging, and deeply connected to the communities it represents.”

Exhibition highlights include:

3D Botanical Installation: Community Garden of Identity
St. George School, 5th Grade
Fifth-grade students collaborated to create a three-dimensional installation in which each student crafted an individual plant sculpture representing who they are. Every piece is made entirely from biodegradable materials, including student-made bioplastics, locally sourced and milled wood, seaweed, pressed fibers, and other natural materials.

Layered Symbolic Portrait Photography
Nobleboro Central School, 7th Grade
Middle school students stepped back from selfie culture and social media to develop a more intentional relationship with photography. Using point-and-shoot cameras, they explored what it means to see and be seen. The project culminates in layered diptychs of paper and silk that present two versions of the same symbolic portrait, reflecting the in-between experience of young people who are neither children nor adults, but simultaneously both.

Multimedia Miniatures: Deconstructed Dollhouse
Brewer High School, 9th–10th Grade
Students constructed a collaborative, room-by-room dollhouse installation in which each miniature space serves as an intimate portrait of its creator’s lived experience. Drawing on themes of memory, trauma, identity, and creativity, the work invites viewers to consider how personal subjectivity shapes individual realities.

Large-Scale Wall Installation with Digital Portal
Oceanside High School, 11th–12th Grade
High school students created a large-scale wall installation featuring a broken portal that frames a screen displaying an original digital film. The work explores how global and national events demand attention, even as people often turn away from them, shaped by the habits and distances that technology creates in how we relate to one another.

"Arts@theIntersection Student Exhibition" will be on view at the Farnsworth Art Museum through spring 2027.